pink tour bus nashville

NashTrash Tours

Review Highlights

“ I'm sure the Jugg Sisters are amazing, but the tour guide we ended up with was Ben, and he did not disappoint! ” in 58 reviews

“ and then back on the big pink bus for more stories and laughter, watching them perform some funny tunes. ” in 12 reviews

“ We had such a blast with Brenda Kay and Sheri Lynn , I didn't want to get off the bus when it was over. ” in 10 reviews

Location & Hours

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900 Rosa L Parks Blvd

Nashville, TN 37219

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Is this #1 item really recommended for teenagers? My search was for things to do with a teenager in Nashville.

Not really. The tours are more adult-oriented, with alcohol allowed on board. Kids 15 and under are not allowed.

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Overall rating

229 reviews

Brenda is Amazing! So much fun! My mom and I decided to see Nashville. She gave us some great tips on places to visit while we were there, all while entertaining us.

What a wonderfully funny and irreverent tour! Great songs reminiscent of the Andrews sisters harmony. So happy to Trash Nash with OG sistas

Buh Buh Buffy and the Juggs

We laughed so hard!! Sherri Lynn and Brenda Kay are a must in Nashville! Art says "Hi girls!"

I'd say the Jugg Sisters are the best thing to happen since sliced bread, but I think they existed before it did ;-) My husband and I were visiting our friend in Nashville, they've both been on the tour multiple times before; and were really excited to bring me along, because they know my sense of humor. IT.DID.NOT.DISAPPOINT. I turned to my friend in the first 5 minutes, before we even got on the bus and said "I would have said I got my money's worth if the tour ended now." They are absolutely hilarious from the first second you meet them. ALSO they learn evering single person's name on the bus (we had a full tour too 30ish people) and use it the entire time. Quite impressive. I could continue to rave, but I'll just keep it simple. If you're a fan of adult jokes, lots of sex puns and 2 gorgeous tour guide sisters. This tour is for you. If you're boring, square and don't know how to let loose, do not book this tour. But also in all seriousness, (their website says it, And we experienced it). The tour tends to run longer than the 2 hours (ours was about 2.5). So highly recommend keeping that in mind as your plan your day when taking this tour,BUT the extra time you get with them is absolutely worth it. Thanks Ladies!! This tour was the absolute highlight on my first trip to Nashville.

My only regret is that this was not the first thing we did right off the plane! These ladies drove us around Nashville and pointed out all the best local hot spots for food, music and fun activities. They are so tapped in to what is going on in every bar, club, and show venue. You could easily plan all your daily Nashville activities after taking their tour. Oh yeah, AND they are funny as hell. We laughed out tits off every minute of this tour. And they can sing! You could almost take their singing, for granted, because you're laughing so hard at what they're saying. Their voices are beautiful. Their knowledge of the music industry is amazing. so I fully recommend taking this tour wholeheartedly. It is a full Lovin spoonful and by the end of it, you will feel like family. What a great experience I will do it again.

Our group had an amazing time on the NashTrash Tour! would highly recommend it! The tour guides are witty and engaging. I would definitely recommend it!

We did the Nash Trash tour with our "tour guides", Jenny and Hank, quite the entertainers! The two are clever, funny and really good singers/musicians, too! They also pointed out the best local hot spots food, music, and entertainment. Their knowledge of the music industry is amazing! We grabbed a coupe of amazing hot dogs at the farmers market before the tour. We did 3 tours this week and this by far was the most fun! "Oh look, there's a Bluetick Coonhound"... you had to be their! (That's the state dog for Tennessee)

Laughed and learned. Tour guides were talented and funny. Had a lot of fun Bus was old school bus. Bus driver was amazing Make your reservations a month ahead of time.

This tour was recommended by a friend and I am so glad we took their advice. The entire tour/show is so funny, full of great history and information, and we laughed the whole trip. The Jugg sisters are extremely talented and super personable and funny and made a informative tour, fun. It's a little blue, so if you're sensitive to blue humor they might not be your shot of whiskey, but if you enjoy edgier humor then sign up immediately!

The amazing Jugg sisters.

You will not regret taking this tour. To quote my husband "I have not laughed that much in a long time!" Our cheeks hurt from laughing so much. It is a MUST DO with the Jugg Sisters. They are an absolutely amazing duo. We had such a blast!!!

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Nashville Bachelorette Party Bus

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What is Honky Tonk Party Express?

Experience your celebration like no other with the Honky Tonk Party Express. Our open air party bus will let you take in the sites and sounds of Lower Broadway. Drink and dance your way through downtown Nashville in your two hour party tour. If you want an unforgettable experience, the Honky Tonk Party Express is your party bus!

Weekly Deals

Private party bus tours.

Get’em while they are hot! Private Party Bus tours are just $350. These weekly limited number of tours are available each week while they last. We are saving you money so you can party harder!

VIP EXPERIENCE

Cruise the most sought after Nashville destinations aboard your own private party bus, equipped with your own personal bartender.

PERSONAL BARTENDER

Every party bus comes with cups, coolers ice and a VIP bartender. Your VIP bartender is your private host for the entire tour. They are there to serve you all your drinks, act as your personal DJ as well as your party photographer.

2-HOUR PARTY TOUR

Unlike our competitors, we offer a full 2-hour party bus tour. Enjoy the extended tour and have the Ultimate Party Experience!

LARGE GROUP SEATING

Seating for up to 25-people per Party Bus and additional fleet can be rented adding up to an additional 450+ guests per tour.

CHOOSE YOUR PARTY BUS EXPERIENCE

Book Nashville's Most Iconic Party Bus.

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JACK DANIEL'S TOUR

Voted "Nashville's best party bus" by TripAdvisor & Nashville Guru our custom built, open-air party buses, are best described as "Mardi Gras meets Nashville."

If your friends or company are looking for a truly unique Nashville experience...

MASSIVE SOUND SYSTEM

Drink, Dance & Party on a LED-lit dance floor, blasting your favorite music through a 40+ hi-fi speaker system.

VIP BARTENDER

Your VIP bartender is there to serve you drinks and act as your personal DJ as well as your party photographer.

We offer a full 2-hour party bus tour. Enjoy the extended tour and have the Ultimate Party Experience!

Each Party Bus accommodates up to 30 people. Additional fleet seating for up to 400+ people.

"Ride Us Once, Remember It Forever"

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NASHVILLE PARTY BUS PRICING

Weekend tour, +fees | gratuity not included, private party rental | thurs - sun, weekday tour, private party rental | mon - wed, single rider, single seat | per person.

2-HOUR NAHSVILLE PARTY TOUR

PARTY WITH UP TO 25 FRIENDS

BATHROOM BREAK

VIP BARTENDER SERVICE INCLUDED

CUPS, COOLERS AND ICE INCLUDED

SEE-THROUGH ROOF

• Don't Forget

Book Your VIP Shuttle

ONE-WAY RIDES ONLY

SUBJECT TO AVAILABILITY

PRICE SUBJECT TO DISTANCE

25 PASSENGERS PER SHUTTLE

MORE SHUTTLE OPTIONS

10 PERSON MINIMUM FOR TOUR TO RUN

Private rental | mon - wed, private rental | thurs - sun.

2-HOUR TOUR

CUPS, COOLERS AND ICE

• BOOK VIP SHUTTLE RIDE

HOW IT WORKS

Pick your tour, pick your date, choose your time, select add-ons.

Drinks Made Easy

Purchase at Check-in

Hard Seltzers & Light Beer

As of March 1st 2024, we will no longer allow BYOB to more fully comply with Nashville beer & liquor laws in conjunction with the Transportation and Licensing Comission.

WHY CHOOSE US?

SEE MORE OF NASHVILLE

DOWNTOWN, TITANS STADIUM, NASHVILLE THE GULCH, AND MORE...

2-HOUR TOURS

MORE TIME = MORE FUN

CUSTOM PACKAGES

WEDDINGS, SHUTTLE SERVICE, TAILGATES, CORPORATE EVENTS

TOUR OPTIONS

SEATS UP-TO 25 PEOPLE PER BUS

LARGEST FLEET PARTIES UP TO 400+

MOST TOUR TIMES

84 DIFFERENT TOUR TIMES AVAILABLE

EXCLUSIVE LOADUP

PRIVATE BATHROOMS WITH ONSITE RETAIL

VIP SHUTTLE

LUXURY SHUTTLE TO AND FROM YOUR PARTY BUS

*LIMITED AVAILABILITY

See Nashville's Hottest Locations

See all of nashville.

We visit the most sought after destinations in Nashville, TN. Here's just sample of famous landmarks our Party Buses take you and your group.

We tour through Nashville's hottest areas. See and be seen by everyone!

• Bridgestone Arena
• Ryman Auditorium
• Tootsie's Orchid Lounge
• Lower Broadway
• Printers Alley
• Historic Second Avenue
• Nissan Stadium
• Country Music Hall of Fame
• Midtown Nashville
• Yee-Haw Brewery

Still have questions? Visit our FAQ for answer to many of the common questions guests have before booking their event with Honky Tonk Party Express.

Be The Party!

WHAT EVERYONE'S SAYING

See why everyone is raving about our nashville tours.

"Great trip. Seriously the highlight of the trip!! We had so much fun!"

Linda Haudricourt

"They were so much fun and my bachelorette party had such a great time!!!"

Cheya Scott

"The staff was amazing!!! Went for a bachelorette party, the greatest activity around!"

Alyssa Antoniello

Extend your honky tonk party experience.

Nashville party buses are a must do in Nashville, but the problem is no one offers a one stop shop for all your Nashville party celebration needs. That's why we launched the Honky Tonk Party Experience! Using our services we can save you time, money and confusion for your next party. Let us make you the party planning hero!

Choose Your Booking Option

Everyone must be 21 to ride.

NO GLASS ALLOWED.

Cups, coolers and ice will be provided

Plan on arriving 20 mins before your tour to check in

Private Booking Public Booking Corporate Booking Tailgate Booking

Private Tour Booking

Must have a valid ID to ride

Payment is due at time of booking confirmation.

Seating for up to 25 people

VIP Shuttle Reservation

Don’t forget to contact us after booking your Nashville Party Bus for your VIP Shuttle Ride!

*Shuttle times are first-come, first-served

I’m Ready to Book!

Party Bus Information

• Everyone must be 21 to ride.

• NO GLASS ALLOWED.

• Must have a valid ID to ride

• Cups, coolers and ice will be provided

• Plan on arriving 20 mins before your tour

• Payment is due at time of booking

• Seating for up to 25 guests

• 10 Passenger Minimum

Corporate Tour Booking

Gratuity included in price

Party Bus Only

Party Bus + Topgolf Experience

About Topgolf

Tailgate Tour Booking

Water will be provided

Tailgate party bus does not move

Gratuity Accepted for bartender

Topgolf VIP Experience

Book your next celebration with the Honky Tonk Party Express and unlock the Topgolf VIP package and reservations.

Topgolf Experience Includes: 20% Off Topgolf Game Play Free Lifetime Memberships Selections from Event Catering Menu Bottomless Fountain Soda, Ice Tea, and Water Guaranteed Side-by-Side Reserved Bays Free VIP Bay Access ($600 value) Complimentary Golf Club Usage Game Demonstration Dedicated Server

I’m Ready!

This designation is presented to approximately 10% of total businesses on TripAdvisor that have consistency achieved great reviews over the past year.

Wedding Booking

Single Party Bus

Multiple Party Buses

ADD TOPGOLF VIP EXPEREINCE?

Yes, absolutely!

Corporate Shuttle Booking

Shuttle Bus + Topgolf VIP

Shuttle Bus Only

Choose Your Bach Option

Bachelorette Party Bachelor Party

Bachelorette Party Bus Info

Want to upgrade.

For just $50 more you could upgrade to our VIP Shuttle Service and receive a one-way pickup or drop-off destination of your choice!

I want VIP!

No thanks, just the Party Bus

Reserve Your VIP Bachelorette Experience!

Simply fill out the form below and we’ll prepare your Bachelorette VIP Party Bus.

We respond to all emails within a 48-hour business day.

Tailgate Package Request

Simply fill out the form below and we’ll prepare your VIP Tailgate Party Bus.

Which Home Game? Titans Vanderbilt Southeastern Conference Arizona State University Alabama Collegiate Music City Bowl UTK

How Many People? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125

Date of Tailgate

Add an additional hour to your tailgate.

Shuttle Service

Shuttle Pickup seating up to 25 people.

Beverage Delivery

Deliver pre-purchased beverages to your tailgate.

Catering Option

Bachelor Party Booking

Don’t forget to book your VIP shuttle ride at checkout!

PRIVATE TOUR

PUBLIC TOUR

Reserve Your Party Bus Experience!

Simply fill out the form below and we’ll prepare Party Bus experience.

Booking Option Private Public Corporate Tailgate

Number of Guests 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125

VIP Shuttle Grab a shuttle ride with your tour. One-way pickup to the Party Bus or drop-off from the Party Bus +$100 Yes No

“Wanna Ride in Style?”

Grab a shuttle ride with your tour.”

Ride in Style

No thanks. I’ll take 3 Ubers.

[tminus t=”+15 seconds”/]

PRIVATE BOOKING

Public booking, tailgate booking, reserve your tailgate party bus.

Simply fill out the form below and we’ll prepare Shuttle + Party Bus experience.

Team | Stadium —Please choose an option— Alabama Crimson Tide - Bryant-Denny Stadium Auburn Tigers - Jordan-Hare Stadium Music City Bowl - Nissan Stadium SEC Championship Tennessee State Tigers - Nissan Stadium Tennessee Titans - Nissan Stadium Tennessee Volunteers - Neyland Stadium Vanderbilt Commodores - Vanderbilt Stadium Collegiate (Other Team)

How Many People?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125

Beverage Delivery Deliver pre-purchased beverages to your tailgate.

Additional Info? (Optional)

Reserve Your Wedding Party Bus

Simply fill out the form below and we’ll immediately send you additional information via email.

Tell us about your project

We will respond within 48 business hours to all requests.

Request Your ONE-WAY SHUTTLE

Request your glow vip bus.

One-Way Shuttle VIP Christmas Shuttle

Number of Buses 1 2 3 4 5+

Corporate Tour Info

• Plan on arriving 20 mins before your tour to check in

• Gratuity included in price

Complete Inquiry Form

or Contact Us 615-433-5594

Topgolf Package

Include a Topgolf package with any of our party bus or shuttle services.

Corporate Tour Form

Please fill out the form below and someone from our team will reach out to accommodate you and your group.

Party Bus Option Party Bus Only Party Bus + Topgolf Shuttle Only Shuttle + Topgolf

Will You Need a Street Closure Permit? Yes No Unsure

We respond to all emails within 48 business hours.

Choose Your Booking Option

Private booking, public booking, personalized events.

Prices are subject to level of customization and gratuity could be included in price depending on amount of customization.

Let us help you plan the perfect Nashville event! Fill out the form below and we’ll contact you to discuss how our team can create a custom package to fit your specific event needs.

Number of Guests 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 Event Date

Bachelor Party Private Booking

Bachelor party public booking, bachelorette party private booking, sponsorship inquiry form.

Number of Buses (required) 1 2 3 4+

Contract Term (required) 6-months 1-year multi-year

Request House Party

Simply fill out the form below and we’ll contact you and set up your Nashville House Party booking.

Additional Services DJ VIP Bartender Alcohol Pickup

TripAdvisor Facebook Google Yelp

Honky Tonk Party Bag Honky Tonk Party Bus Honky Tonk Party Shuttle

VIP Bus + Shuttle Booking

• This is a booking request, NOT a booking confirmation.

• All reservation must be approved and confirmed by the company.

• Payment is due at time of booking confirmation.

• Fast Pass Into Event

• Multiple shuttles available for groups large than 25

• ADDITIONAL HOURS: $150/HR

Request Your Franktown Festival of Lights Christmas Bus + VIP Shuttle

We respond to all emails within a 24-hour business day.

Private Bus Shuttle Booking

• Multiple buses available for groups large than 25

• Tour is approximately 25-minutes long

Request Your Franktown Festival of Lights Private Holiday Bus

PRIVATE BUS BUS + SHUTTLE

FREE VIP Shuttle Pickup

Don’t forget to contact us after booking your Nashville Party Bus for your complimentary FREE VIP Shuttle Pickup!

Bachelor Party Bus Info

Party bus info, private weekend booking, private weekday booking, bachelorette party booking, scottsdale booking request.

Error: Contact form not found.

Shuttle RSVP Form

Honky tonk party shuttle vip, topgolf vip, music city gents vip, redneck riviera vip, nash collection vip, pontoon saloon vip, arrington vineyards vip, bach shirt crazy vip, bachelorette party public booking, private party bus info, request winery booking.

Simply fill out the form below and we’ll contact you and set up your Nashville Winery Shuttle booking.

Group Type Shuttle Ride Only Shuttle + Private Wine Tasting for 1-10 Shuttle + Private Wine Tasting for 11-16

Party Size 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125

Date Requested

Request Mural Bus Tour

Simply fill out the form below and we’ll contact you and set up your Nashville Mural Tour booking.

Party Type Public Private

Preferred Start Time 9:00AM 9:15AM 9:30AM 9:45AM 10:00AM 10:15AM 10:30AM 10:45AM 11:00AM 11:15AM 11:30AM 11:45AM 12:00PM 12:15PM 12:30PM 12:45PM 1:00PM 1:15PM 1:30PM 1:45PM 2:00PM 2:15PM 2:30PM 2:45PM 3:00PM 3:15PM 3:30PM 3:45PM 4:00PM 4:15PM 4:30PM 4:45PM 5:00PM

Requested Date

Parade Booking

Number of Buses (required)

Request Shuttle Booking

Simply fill out the form below and we’ll contact you and set up your Nashville Shuttle booking.

Group Type Holiday Shuttle Corporate Team Bachelorette Concert Shuttle Winery Shuttle Party Bus Shuttle Private Group Airport Shuttle Jack Daniel's Shuttle Prom Shuttle Horseracing Shuttle Titans Shuttle Vanderbilt Shuttle UT Shuttle Music City Bowl Shuttle Geodis Park Shuttle Sounds Stadium Shuttle Steeple Chase Custom

Choose One One-way Roundtrip Hourly Day Rental Custom

Pickup Time Custom 7:00AM 7:15AM 7:30AM 7:45AM 8:00AM 8:15AM 8:30AM 8:45AM 9:00AM 9:15AM 9:30AM 9:45AM 10:00AM 10:15AM 10:30AM 10:45AM 11:00AM 11:15AM 11:30AM 11:45AM 12:00PM 12:15PM 12:30PM 12:45PM 1:00PM 1:15PM 1:30PM 1:45PM 2:00PM 2:15PM 2:30PM 2:45PM 3:00PM 3:15PM 3:30PM 3:45PM 4:00PM 4:15PM 4:30PM 4:45PM 5:00PM 5:15PM 5:30PM 5:45PM 6:00PM 6:15PM 6:30PM 6:45PM 7:00PM 7:15PM 7:30PM 7:45PM 8:00PM 8:15PM 8:30PM 8:45PM 9:00PM 9:15PM 9:30PM 9:45PM 10:00PM 10:15PM 10:30PM 10:45PM 11:00PM 11:15PM 11:30PM 11:45PM 12:00AM

Pickup Date

Travel Protection Refund Request Form

Date of Tour (required)

Application Contact Form

Phone Number

What position are you applying for? —Please choose an option— Party Bus Driver Mini Coach Driver Lead Driver Merch Sales Check-in Host Bartender Internship

Employment Inquires

Position Party Bus Driver Mini Coach Driver Check-in Host Merch Sales Inside Sales Bartender

Best time to contact you Morning Afternoon Evening

Tell us a little about yourself

Request Jack Daniel’s Distillery Booking

Simply fill out the form below and we’ll contact you and set up your shuttle service booking.

[number* number-378 first_as_label "Guest Count" min:1 max:50]

Date of Event

Tell us about your tailgate event

Simply fill out the form below and we’ll contact you to book your GameDay Party Bus!

Team Alabama Crimson Tide - Bryant-Denny Stadium Auburn Tigers - Jordan-Hare Stadium Music City Bowl - Nissan Stadium SEC Championship Tennessee State Tigers - Nissan Stadium Tennessee Titans - Nissan Stadium Tennessee Volunteers - Neyland Stadium Vanderbilt Commodores - Vanderbilt Stadium Collegiate (Other Team)

Date of Game

Please tell us about your tailgate event

Simply fill out the form below and we'll contact you to book your GameDay Party Bus!

Request Bachelorette Package

Simply fill out the form below, and we’ll contact you and set up your Nashville Bachelorette Package booking.

Choose Package —Please choose an option— Basic Bach Golden Girl Nash Vegas Platinum Package Custom

Add-Ons —Please choose an option— None Airport Pickup Booze Delivery

Arrival Date

Departure Date

Request Bachelor Package

Simply fill out the form below, and we’ll contact you and set up your Nashville Bachelor Package booking.

Choose Package —Please choose an option— Basic Bro Jacked Up Teeed Up Three Amigos Custom

Request Steeplechase Shuttle

Simply fill out the form below and we’ll contact you and set up your Nashville Steeplechase Shuttle booking.

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End of an Era: NashTrash Tours' pink bus says goodbye to one of its hilarious hosts

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — For more than 25 years, a big, bright familiar sight has brought a lot of laughs to Nashville, the pink bus that carries NashTrash Tours. It isn't going anywhere, but there is a bittersweet change coming.

"Hey, y'all! Let's introduce ourselves right now!" a woman shouted to a crowd of people gathered outside the bus.

"I'm Sheri Lynn!"

"I'm Brenda Kay!"

"I'm the smart one!"

"And I'm the sober one!"

You have not truly ridden through this city in high style until you've taken the big pink bus of NashTrash Tours with your hosts, the Jugg Sisters.

"You ruin a punch line, we will cut you!" Sheri Lynn said to a laughing crowd on the bus. "I have a couple announcements."

"She's pregnant!" Brenda Kay chimed in.

Between tours, Brenda Kay and Sheri Lynn shared their story. They launched the NashTrash tours business in 1997.

"We get to make people laugh," said Brenda Kay.

"And I work with my sister!" Sheri Lynn added. "26 years later, look at us now, look at the empire!"

She gestured around the inside of the big pink bus.

Next year, the sister act is coming to an end. The pink bus and NashTrash Tours aren't going anywhere, but Sheri Lynn is retiring sometime next year.

"I mean, it's sad," said Sheri Lynn. "I bet you a million dollars I'll miss it."

Having this much fun, how could she not? Brenda Kay is continuing with the tours, planning a solo show. So, what will Sheri Lynn do?

"I'd say your burlesque show is very tasteful," Brenda Kay chimed in.

"That's where all the old strippers go. I'm going into burlesque!" said Sheri Lynn.

Sheri Lynn just feels it's time for something new.

"Like Vicki Yates, the next chapter begins," Brenda Kay smiled, referring to NewsChannel 5's longtime beloved anchor who is soon to retire.

"We're a lot like Vicki Yates!" laughed Sheri Lynn. "In every way!"

Get NewsChannel 5 Now , wherever, whenever, always free.

Our gift to the Nashville community

Upstage Party Bus – Miss Avery Grace

***Several photos throughout this site were when taken in the winter when the bus had glass on the sides, we are now open-air as it is warmer out.  If it gets cold or rains, we have windows that will drop down

Welcome to Miss Avery Grace, Nashville’s only  party bus completely devoted to the girls (yes, the guys are welcome)!  This bus is beyond bougie!  It is equipped with a unique shimmer wall, photo booth, flower wall, pink seating, refrigeration, karaoke machine and much much more!  Our sound system will have your group up and dancing your way through Nashville as you see all the hot spots, and many murals for photo opportunities.  Each tour comes with a host that will make sure your drinks stay filled, your music selection is on point, and be your photographer!  All of our drivers have a Class A CDL, carry a passenger endorsement, and are the best of the best!

Upstage Party Bus is a family owned company, this bus is dedicated to our daughter, Avery Grace.  We specialize in kids parties, birthday parties, bachelorette parties, karaoke parties, and corporate events.

Due to Nashville’s ever changing laws, any alcohol above 8% is not allowed on board, meaning no hard liquor.  We made it easy for you to follow these rules by using a pre-order form for your BYOB drinks.  Upstage Party Bus is classy, shotgunning beers, beer bongs, and blatant disrespect to the bus or staff is not permitted and will terminate the run.

Upstage Party Bus is happy to announce that we have received our permits to operate our busses with alcohol (up to 8%) on 6/29/2022.  In accordance with the new laws and regulations,  if an individual under 21 is on board, alcohol is not allowed for the entire group!  Please understand when booking that sales are final and this has been noted on our site as of 7/1/2022.

THE MISS AVERY BUS BUS ONLY BOOKS PRIVATE PARTIES, SHARED TOURS ARE NOT AVAILABLE.

UP TO 20 RIDERS

PLEASE NOTE: The photographer is a social media host, who is brilliant at making Tiktok videos and takes great photos.  The camera used is an iPhone and photos and videos are  modified with software on our apps which we believe turns out better than most “professional” camera shoots.  Original photos will be air dropped, emailed, or sent by text to one person in the party at the end of each tour.  Modified pictures, videos, and Tik-toks may be used on our social media, and you will have to follow or like us  on our social media pages to receive/tag yourself in those photos or videos.  Photo-booth pictures will be posted within 30 days of your tour to the link provided in your confirmation email.

Each 2 hour tour is $600 (Last tour is $650 as it’s highest in demand) plus taxes and fees,  the price does not include gratuity for your host or driver.  Suggested gratuity is $10 per person from each passenger to the driver and to the host/photographer.   They work hard to exceed your expectations, show them some love!

Reach out to us at [email protected]

CHOOSE BETWEEN OUR 2 TOUR OPTIONS

2 hour party bus tour of nashville.

A fun 2 hour tour of all the hotspots Nashville has to offer.  Dance your way through Nashville with your your group with your own person DJ/Photographer/Host & Driver.

2 Hour Nashville Mural Tour

Explore the artistic side of Nashville by visiting as many murals as possible on your 2 hour tour.  The funnest way to go from mural to mural that Nashville has to offer, comes with DJ/Photographer/Host & Driver.

If you choose to do the mural tour, please use promo code MURAL at checkout!

The Miss Avery Grace Bus does allow minors under 21 years of age on board, however a new law was passed that if a passenger under 21 is on, alcohol is not allowed.

By booking through this site, you agree to our cancellation (listed below) and BYOB policy .

Please be sure when making your reservation that your telephone number and email are accurate.  We will not spam you, or give out your information.  This is to maintain a clear line of communication, and if your information is invalid, the reservation will not be accepted.  If you make a reservation on the Avery Grace bus and wish to switch it to the Upstage Party Bus, there is a $50 fee to do so.

PHOTO GALLERY

Pre-purchase your drinks from The Green Light Bar where we pick up at ahead of time via the link in your confirmation email.  You MUST use the promo code “Upstage” so they know which bus to have them ready for, in addition it gets you 5% off your order!  (we pass our cut to you)!  You may purchase your drinks at any time from now up until 1 hour before your tour, just choose “schedule for later” and put the date and time of your tour. It is important that this matches the date and tour & departure time exactly.

Per the new city ordinance we are unable to allow any alcohol over 8% per volume, so we are no longer allowing any outside alcohol purchases to ensure there are no issues.

Music City wouldn’t be a party if you have to plug an aux chord.  Leave the music up to our host!  They’ll have you dancing through Nashville the entire time.  We don’t use Spotify or playlists, we use the same professional software as the pros on Upstage Party Bus!  This ensures for perfectly mixed music without the dead air between each song.  Of course we still welcome and will play your requests!

KIDS PARTIES

The Miss Avery Grace bus was actually built with kids in mind!  The company Upstage Party Bus is family owned, and Avery Grace is the owners daughter, this bus was built after her!  We encourage kids of all ages to have a fun way of touring the city all while having fun.  We have hosted many kids parties know how to go from a bachelorette party to a birthday party.  Please keep in mind, when minors are on board, alcohol is not allowed on.

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If you’re looking to go big and you’re not ready to go home, cruise along with us in Nashville’s Premier bar on wheels. In this mobile bar, you will sip and see the city in style.

Nashville’s Top Rated Party Bus Experience

This experience is tailored to the group. It can be a full sightseeing tour (with a tour guide option) throughout Nashville, so you may experience the incredible city and see all it has to offer, or it can be a party on wheels… crank up the music and party! The choice is all yours. Come on y’all! Hop on for the time of your life!

Our party buses are perfect for bachelorette, bachelor, and birthday parties!

Nashville is the top destination for bachelor and bachelorette parties. Why not go out and see Nashville with the top-rated tour company in Nashville?

Turn heads and make everyone look up at you as you cruise the streets with a very unique perspective. You will make spectators jealous that they didn’t come along for the ride. Everyone will see you coming from down the street as Joyride’s Party Bus rolls past.

FOR PRIVATE TOURS: If you are choosing the VIP (private) option, there is no minimum number of people. Our party buses hold a maximum of 35 people. The standard booking is a party ride - meaning there will be music blasting and drinks* flowing! If you would like your party bus experience to be a guided sightseeing tour, you will have the option to add a tour guide at checkout for an additional fee. Private tours can book either our Tin Roof Party Bus (blue) or our Big Machine Vodka Party Bus (pink).

FOR PUBLIC TOURS: There is a 6-person minimum to book the “public” tour. Once 6 have been booked, smaller groups of less than 6 will be allowed to book the existing time slot. All public tours will meet at our office. Public Tours will always be a party on wheels and not a guided sightseeing tour.

Public tours may not book a specific party bus. Public tours may happen on either our Tin Roof Party Bus (blue) or our Big Machine Vodka Party Bus (pink).

Please note: When booking a “public” tour, others can and likely will be added to your tour. If this happens, our team will do their best to accommodate the wishes of everyone in the group. We always hope that everyone on the bus has a great time!!

• Experience Nashville in a truly unique way
• Bartender /DJ at no extra cost / Certified Tour Guide (additional fees apply)
• Cup Holders! Lights! Music!
• Bring the bar* on the road as you explore Nashville
• Cooler, ice, and cups provided
• Great photo opportunities
• *Please – no food on the bus*

*Alcohol can only be purchased through our partner bar, The Green Light. Liquor is not allowed, only beer, seltzers, and any non-liquor beverage.

Party Bus Age Policy

• Public Party Bus: participants MUST be 21 years of age or older.
• Private Party Bus: if alcohol is present on board, all participants MUST be 21 years of age or older. If there are passengers under 21, no alcohol is permitted on the bus.

Additional questions and answers can be found by clicking here:

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Nashville Van Transportation

• Our van transportation services are available for transporting groups to destinations within the Nashville area.
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RoadsideAmerica.com Your Online Guide to Offbeat Tourist Attractions

Attraction:

Nashville, Tennessee : NashTrash Tour

90 minutes on a pink bus, hosted by the Jugg Sisters, who enjoy showing visitors the lowlights of downtown Music City.

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Visitor Tips and News About NashTrash Tour

Reports and tips from RoadsideAmerica.com visitors and Roadside America mobile tipsters . Some tips may not be verified. Submit your own tip .

All three tours are great! The Jugg Sisters are hilarious!

Website with the latest tour information is at nashtrash.com. Tried to book this week, and waitlist only, so booking early seems to be a good plan.

Sheri Lynn and Brenda Kay Jugg take you on a hot pink bus all around Nashville, giving all the best gossip about country music stars. They serve "squirt cheese" hors d'oeuvres. You bring your own liquid refreshment (alcohol okay). The ladies are dressed in "trailer trash" outfits and do a bit of a show. Tour is 90 minutes of laughing your butt off. They spot people on the street and yell out country music singers names. Faces on the people on the streets are hilarious. Reservations required, and really hard to get -- call in advance.

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Nashville Bus Tours

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Bus tours offer almost effortless means of taking in what Nashville has to offer, whether you simply want to see the city's top attractions or have specific interests, such as music, comedy, celebrities or a certain adult beverage. Here are some to consider:

Old Town Trolley Tours – Nashville Hop-on Hop-off Trolley Tour: Explore the sights and sounds of Nashville at your own pace on this hop-on hop-off excursion. Vehicles stop at 13 prime attractions, including the Country Music Hall of Fame , Ryman Auditorium , Belmont Mansion and Centennial Park . Tours feature live commentary. They occur daily between 9:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. Tickets cost about $55 for single-day tours. You may be able to score discounted tickets if you book online in advance. Riders say this tour offers a great way to learn about the city and praise its knowledgeable, entertaining guides.

Tennessee Whiskey Tours – Jack n' Back Tour: If your visit to Nashville is long enough for a daytrip outside the city, and you're a fan of Jack Daniel's, consider this bus ride to the Jack Daniel's Distillery in Lynchburg. Tours depart downtown Nashville daily at 9 a.m. and return around 4 p.m. The approximately $120 ticket price includes transportation as well as the distillery's 90-minute Angel's Share tour. Tennessee whiskey enthusiasts recommend this tour and laud the informative drivers and guides.

Music City Rollin' Jamboree: Cruise through Music City on this tour, which blends sightseeing with country music singalongs and stand-up comedy, which reviewers consistently call great fun. Tour-takers must be at least 21 years old, as the comedy features adult themes. Tickets start at $38 per person. Tours run Tuesday through Saturday at 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. during peak season; offseason hours vary. Tours typically last about 90 minutes.

NashTrash Tours – The Jugg Sisters Original Tour: Ride a pink bus through downtown Nashville while enjoying the risqué comedy of sisters Brenda Kay and Sherri Lynn Jugg on this roughly two-hour tour. Tours featuring the sibling jokesters, who regularly garner rave reviews, take place multiple times a week starting at 11 a.m. and ticket prices start at $50.

Redneck Comedy Bus Tour: See some of Nashville's most popular destinations while listening to the commentary of comics whom tour-takers generally find both hilarious and informative. This outing includes a stop at the Ole Smoky Moonshine Distillery or the Country Music Hall of Fame. Rides aboard the camouflage-covered bus happen multiple times every day; however, fewer tours run in winter. Tickets start at around $40 for adults and $30 for children 12 and younger.

Gray Line Tours – Discover Nashville City Tour – Gray Line Tours: This 3.5-hour ride ferries tourgoers by many of the city's leading attractions, including the Parthenon and Music Row , among many others. Tours happen multiple times per week starting at 9 a.m. Tickets start at $91 for adults and $46 for children 6 to 11. The price includes admission to both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Ryman Auditorium. Tourgoers find this a convenient way to visit two major attractions without the bother of parking or waiting in line, and they regularly describe the guides as insightful.

Homes of the Stars Tour – Gray Line Tours: If you wish the see the current or former homes of Nashville's famous residents, take this two-hour tours that passes more than 30 such sites. You could see the homes of Taylor Swift, Martina McBride and Reese Witherspoon, among others. (Note: Stars homes are subject to change.) Travelers say this is a wonderful opportunity to see neighborhoods they may have otherwise missed. Tours take place at 11:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. several days a week. Prices start at around $65 for adults and $33 for children 4 to 11.

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More Best Things To Do in Nashville

#1 Grand Ole Opry

U.S. News Insider Tip: Take the “Women of Country” tour to learn about the women who shaped country music, from Dolly Parton to Carrie Underwood, complete with mimosas and petit fours. – Kellie Walton

The Grand Ole Opry began as a radio show in 1925, and it put Nashville on the map as the "Country Music Capital of the World." Throughout its history, the Grand Ole Opry has called several different places home (including the Ryman Auditorium ), but has always hosted country performers from legends like Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton to favorites like Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood and Keith Urban.

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All Sightseeing Tours Depart From Riverfront Station Located At 108 1st Ave. South. 

Nashville’s Best Bus Tours – Voted by Visitors!

Nashville, known for its vibrant music scene and rich history, offers some of the best bus tours to explore the city. whether you’re a first-time visitor or a local looking to rediscover music city, these tours provide an immersive experience with knowledgeable guides and comfortable rides., here are the top five bus tours in nashville:, 1. nashville city tour ( vehicle: on nashville’s only open-air, double- decker bus) ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️.

Voted the number one tour in Nashville, the Nashville City Tour by Gray Line Tennessee offers an excellent introduction to the city. This one-hour tour on an open-air double-decker bus takes you through over 100 points of interest , including iconic landmarks like the Ryman Auditorium, Country Music Hall of Fame, and the Parthenon at Centennial Park. The panoramic views and engaging narration make it a must-do for anyone visiting Nashville. ⭐️ Family-Friendly Tour!

Book your Nashville City Tour here

2. Homes of the Stars Tour ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ (Vehicle: Air-Conditioned Mini-Bus)

Experience the glamour of Nashville with the Homes of the Stars Tour. This two-hour narrated tour takes you past the residences of some of the biggest names in country music, past and present. You’ll see the homes of celebrities like Taylor Swift, Dolly Parton, and more. It’s a fascinating glimpse into the lives of the stars who call Nashville home. . ⭐️ Family-Friendly Tour!

Book your Homes of the Stars Tour here

3. The Discover Nashville Tour ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ (Vehicle: Air Conditioned Mini-Bus)

For a comprehensive exploration of Nashville, the Discover Nashville Tour is perfect. This tour includes admission to the historic Ryman Auditorium and the Country Music Hall of Fame. You’ll also get a driving tour of key landmarks such as the State Capitol, Fort Nashborough, and Music Row. It’s an all-inclusive experience that offers a deep dive into the city’s history and culture. . ⭐️ Family-Friendly Tour!

Book your Discover Nashville Tour here

4. The Civil War Tour ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ (Vehicle: Air Conditioned Mini-Bus)

History buffs will appreciate the Civil War Tour, which takes you to significant sites from the Battle of Franklin, one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War. The tour provides detailed stories and historical context, making it a captivating experience for anyone interested in American history. . ⭐️ Family-Friendly Tour!

Book your Civil War Tour here

5. Memphis Day Trip Tour ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ (Vehicle: Luxury Motorcoach)

If you have a day to spare, the Memphis Day Trip Tour is an excellent way to explore beyond Nashville. This tour includes VIP access to Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley, as well as visits to other Memphis highlights such as Beale Street and the Peabody Hotel & legendary Sun Studios. It’s a fantastic opportunity to experience another iconic music city. . ⭐️ Family-Friendly Tour!

Book your Memphis Day Trip Tour here

These tours offer a variety of experiences that cater to different interests, from music and celebrity culture to history and city sightseeing. Each tour is designed to provide a unique and memorable experience, making your visit to Nashville truly special. For more information and to book your tours, visit Gray Line Tennessee’s Nashville Sightseeing Tours Page.

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The 100 Most Iconic Guitars of All Time: Complete List Revealed

As chosen by a panel of ace guitarists across a variety of genres, as well as experts and journalists.

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From the blues to jazz to rock to folk to country, the guitar is probably the most pivotal instrument of the 20th century, serving as a centerpiece for a variety of genres that changed the course of culture in America and around the world.

In honor of the stringed instrument that has amped up audiences for centuries, we present Billboard ’s complete list of the 100 Greatest Guitars of All Time — updated this week in full after revealing the first half (100-51) last week.

No, that’s not a typo. This is not a list of 100 guitarists – though each item on this list is associated with a particular guitar slinger. And it’s not a list of guitar brands or companies. This is a list of actual guitars, played by great guitarists. It puts the shine on guitars throughout modern history that have been a part of the evolution of popular music. Instead of focusing on guitar playing style, we’re looking at the instrument itself as handled by various luminaries across everything from bluegrass to heavy metal.

What is “the greatest”? Iconic, influential, inventive, famous, game changing? Unusual, oddball, beautiful, even whimsical? Just plain cool? It’s all of that and more. Some of the guitars that follow are standard models with minimal modifications; others are one-of-a-kind pieces that have been endlessly tinkered with. Some are technical and auditory wonders; others have been beaten to hell over the years by overzealous owners. But all are important to the guitar’s history and ongoing evolution.

This was a big undertaking that we didn’t want to do alone. We invited a panel of ace guitarists across a variety of genres, as well as journalists and experts, to peruse a lengthy list of guitars, compiled by Billboard, and vote on them. We invited our voters to submit their own picks. After tallying their responses, we sent it back to the voting panel, solicited additional feedback and incorporated that into a final list of the 100 Greatest Guitars of All Time.

In addition to a few voters who wished to remain anonymous, the voting panel included: Duane Betts, Nick Bowcott of Sweetwater, Carl Broemel of My Morning Jacket, Larry Campbell, Joanna Connor, Michael Doyle of Guitar Center, Alejandro Escovedo, Pete Evick of Bret Michaels Band, Damian Fanelli of Guitar World , Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, Slim Gambill who plays for Lady A, Kirk Hammett of Metallica, Jim James of My Morning Jacket, Myles Kennedy of Alter Bridge and Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators, J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr, Dave Mason, Scott Metzger, Bob Mould, Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick, Orianthi, Joe Perry of Aerosmith, Joe Satriani, Chris Scapelliti of Guitar Player , Peter Stroud of Sheryl Crow’s band, Matthew Sweet, Mark Tremonti of Creed and Alter Bridge, Seth Walker, Erika Wennerstrom of Heartless Bastards, Jack White, Nancy Wilson, Andy Wood and Oliver Wood.

This list is far from exhaustive. There are so many legendary guitars that even a list of 100 fails to encompass all of them. Regardless, we hope what follows spurs some excitement, debate, discovery and even, perhaps, someone to pick up a guitar and start playing.

Johnny Thunders - ca. 1959 Les Paul Junior TV Model

The band was the New York Dolls. The attitude was punk rock. And the color was TV Yellow — which guitar manufacturer Gibson at one point marketed for budding rock stars to stand out on black-and-white broadcasts. “Me and Johnny Thunders basically put the Les Paul Junior on the map,” the Dolls’ other guitarist, Sylvain Sylvain, said in 2009 . “It was the perfect guitar for the New York Dolls because it was stripped down — like the band was and like our songs were.” Guitar World called the circa-1959 Junior “minimal, direct and cut-through with the essence of rock ’n’ roll – basically the blueprint for Thunders’ own ethos.”

Talk of the Town: “I lusted after his TV yellow Les Paul Junior,” The Cult’s Billy Duffy told Guitar World. “ I finally picked up my own Les Paul Junior in 1979, though it was a wine red one. I couldn’t find a yellow one in England at that time.” 

On Display: The Punk Rock Museum in Las Vegas has shown Thunders’ guitar for several years.  – STEVE KNOPPER

Brittany Howard - 1961 Gibson Les Paul SG Custom

Howard never used to like Les Pauls, which she found heavy and unfamiliar, until she borrowed an SG from Heath Fogg, the guitarist from her band Alabama Shakes. She eventually found her own, a 1961 Gibson Les Paul SG Custom in Inverness Green. It’s battered but beautiful — a reissue from the early ‘80s, she has suggested — with three pickups. Howard soon had a collection of SGs (at least five, at one point), which she has been known to play through Orange amps, which offer a warmer, vintage-y sound. She played the SG during the Alabama Shakes’ star-making appearance on Saturday Night Live in 2013.

Strange But True: The SG (short for “solid guitar”) was popularized by blues legend Sister Rosetta Tharpe, who played a white one. Howard inducted Tharpe into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018.

Six-String Stories: “My number one thing for my guitar techs is: Do not clean the pickups,” Howard told The Guardian in 2020. “I like the sound of pickups that are worn down and kind of degraded – it’s just more interesting-sounding. That is why my SG is so unique, because of how the pickups were wound, and how long it has been since they were cleaned up.” – ALLISON STEWART

John Mayer - PRS Silver Sky

When PRS Guitars and John Mayer introduced their first collaborative model in 2018, it was something that looked familiar — and also alien — to the guitar community. Combining a Strat-like body (or “S-style,” as they say in the business) with PRS’ sleek, more contemporary aesthetic, the Silver Sky, like Mayer himself, immediately became a hot-button topic amongst purists and newer players alike. The fact that Mayer had spent much of his career as a staunch Strat man only added to the curiosity of why he had opted to develop the instrument with PRS. His explanation? His desire to make a guitar that was “sort of the future of the classic design.” Just a few years later, it’s one of the more popular signature models on the market.

Shop Talk: According to Mayer, the Silver Sky’s initial finishes were inspired by Tesla car colors. “If you look at materials that were available in the 1950s and ’60s, they’re still being used all the time, only for guitars,” he said in a Guitar Center video . “Things that are sunburst, things that are mother-of-pearl. I wanted to really move it more into this modern period of Tesla, Apple, Leica.”

Specs: Alder body, 25.5 scale length, maple neck with 635JM fretboard shape, trio of 635JM single-coil pickups, “reverse” PRS trademark headstock shape

Sound Decision: The “635” designation in the custom-designed pickups is believed to reference the fact that tonally they sound somewhere in between Mayer’s favored 1963-1964-era Strats, hence “63.5.” – RICHARD BIENSTOCK

Adam Jones - 1979 Gibson Les Paul Custom “Silverburst”

The Gibson Les Paul has several famous finishes, among them the red-orange-yellow Sunburst and the elegant ebony that adorns the “Black Beauty” model. Thanks to Tool guitarist Adam Jones, the considerably rarer Silverburst has now joined the ranks of coveted LP colorways. Reportedly conceived to commemorate the Les Paul’s silver anniversary in 1979, and initially produced only from 1978 until 1982, the Silverburst seemed lost to history until Jones made a ’79 Les Paul Custom in the unique finish – a silver center giving way to darker hues around the body’s border, with the silver taking on a greenish hue over time due to nitrocellulose lacquer aging – his main guitar with Tool. Its stunning appearance, combined with Tool’s fervid fanbase, led Gibson to partner with Jones on a period-correct Custom Shop recreation, and eventually a full line of Jones-inspired Silverburst models.

Rarity Factor: Between just 150 and 200 Silverbursts were reportedly produced during the model’s original run. Jones has stated he owns six of these, including two 1979 examples.

Strange But True: Gibson originally employed metal-flake paint for the finish, and Jones has said he believes the “particular metallic paint does something to the tone or the resonance or the polarity” of the instrument.

Signature Style: Gibson sister brand Epiphone unveiled the Adam Jones Art Collection in 2024, featuring seven Silverburst models emblazoned with artwork from some of the Jones’ favorite visual artists, among them fantasy legend Frank Frazetta and pop-surrealist Mark Ryden. – R. BIENSTOCK

Jimmy Page - 1959 Telecaster “Dragon”

Like any mythical beast, Jimmy Page’s dragon-painted 1959 Telecaster boasts an epic backstory. Used almost exclusively on Led Zeppelin’s debut album and for the solo on “Stairway to Heaven,” this guitar’s origins trace back to Jeff Beck. Beck, who used it on such Yardbirds hits like “Shapes of Things” and “Heart Full of Soul,” gifted it to Page in 1965 as a token of esteem. Originally featuring a White Blonde finish, maple neck and slab rosewood fingerboard, Page initially personalized it by adding eight circular mirrors to the body. Shortly after, he stripped the finish and repainted it himself, creating a psychedelic dragon in a vaguely Japanese style. “I painted it in one go over the course of an evening, finishing it the next day,” Page said in his autobiography, Jimmy Page: The Anthology . “Once it was created and painted, it became like the legendary Excalibur.”

Specs: Page replaced the Telecaster’s original black pickguard with a transparent acrylic one, inserting a sheet of diffraction grating film to create a spectrum of colors when hit by light.

Retirement Party: In 1969, Page switched from the Telecaster to a Les Paul because the Tele’s single-coil pickup caused it to squeal at the volumes needed for live performances in bigger concert halls. – BRAD TOLINSKI

Lzzy Hale - Gibson Explorer

The Gibson Explorer’s angular shape was seen as futuristic when it debuted in the late ‘50s, but by the time Halestorm lead singer and guitarist Lzzy Hale began rocking out with the model onstage, it was deliciously retro, evoking the ‘80s metal bands she grew up idolizing. From her signature Epiphone Explorer with an “Alpine White” finish to her Gibson Explorerbird that rocks a “Cardinal Red” colorway, Hale is, in turn, converting a new generation of shredders to the hard-rocking church of the Explorer.

As Seen On: Hale flaunts her Alpine White Explorer in the music videos “Freak Like Me” and “The Steeple,” both of which are Billboard Mainstream Rock Airplays No. 1s.

Six-String Stories: “That’s pretty much my go-to guitar,” Hale told Harmony Central of her white Explorer in 2018. “Honestly, that guitar, I don’t know what voodoo happened with that one, but it works in any situation.” — JOE LYNCH

Rory Gallagher - 1961 Fender Stratocaster

Rumored to be the first Fender Stratocaster to grace Ireland, its original owner, Jim Conlon, had ordered a red Stratocaster from the U.S. but received this sunburst model by mistake. When the intended red Strat finally arrived six months later, Conlon sold the sunburst model, which was promptly snapped up by Gallagher for just £100 in 1963.

For the next three decades, this guitar was a central piece of Gallagher’s career until his untimely death in 1995 at age 47. Over the years, the guitar’s finish was nearly stripped away, which Gallagher’s brother attributes to Rory’s highly acidic sweat, which aged the paintwork prematurely.

Strange But True: Dublin’s Temple Bar hosts Rory Gallagher Corner at Meeting House Square, marked with a full-sized bronze recreation of his legendary Stratocaster.

As Heard On: Rory Gallagher may not be as universally known as Eric Clapton or Jimi Hendrix, but he made a significant impact, selling over 30 million records worldwide. His 1973 album, Blueprint , which features the ’61 Strat, is often considered his best work.

Shop Talk: In a 1984 interview with Vintage Classic , Gallagher shared, “After a while, the original neck went bad on me. That was about 10 years ago, but I took it off and hung it up. After a few months it dried out and was fine again.” – B. TOLINSKI

Lou Reed - Gretsch Country Gentleman

Late-’60s photos show Reed’s primary guitar in his Velvet Underground days was a Gretsch, which he confirmed to Guitar World in 1998. A San Francisco “electronics guy” built in an echo, he said, “so I could seem to play faster than I really could.” He tinkered relentlessly, making it stereo, adding batteries, until “eventually it just ruined the guitar.” Another key Reed VU guitar: a Kent Copa, purchased for about $150 from a catalog, according to Premier Guitar. As 2021’s documentary The Velvet Underground shows, Reed and co-VU axeman Sterling Morrison took turns playing it.

Specs: The Kent Copa, made by Japanese company Guyatone, had three pickups, three volume controls, a tone control and a rotary selector switch.

Six-String Stories: “I’d been listening to [avant-garde jazz artists] Cecil Taylor and Ornette Coleman. Of course I was not trained to play like them. I couldn’t read and write music. I couldn’t even begin to think of having technique like that. But I certainly had the energy—and a good ear,” Reed told Guitar World. “ So that’s what I was listening to, along with guitar players like James Burton and Steve Cropper.”  – S. KNOPPER

J Mascis - 1958 Fender Jazzmaster

Before they were re-discovered by ‘80s alt-rock hopefuls with no money, Jazzmasters were best known for their appeal to surf-rock and jazz aficionados. Mascis bought his ‘58 Jazzmaster in a Vermont, or possibly Connecticut, trailer park. He covered its gold hardware with more gold hardware, and made it the engine of Dinosaur Jr.’s lumpy, distorted, magisterial sound. It’s also the primary inspiration for his one of Mascis’ own Signature Jazzmasters, an atypically affordable, much-desired model by Squier that has gone in and out of production.

Strange But True: Mascis went to the trailer park with the hope of buying a Stratocaster, but it was too expensive.

Strange But True, Part 2: Mascis learned how to play guitar on a Jazzmaster, his first guitar.

As Heard On: Though Jazzmasters are thought of as foundational to the band’s sound, Mascis doesn’t actually record with them. “There’s hardly ever a Jazzmaster or a Big Muff on any studio recording,” he told Reverb . – A. STEWART

Jimmie Rodgers - 1927 Martin 00-18

Before he became “The Father of Country Music,” Rodgers was a tubercular young crooner, yodeler, former brakeman and guitar player known for his signature Martins. He used an unadorned spruce-and-mahogany Martin 00-18 to make his first recordings during the legendary Bristol Sessions in 1927. Once he had money, he used a custom Martin 00-45 (from either 1927 or ‘28) with a pearlized nameplate, and, for the audience, the word “THANKS” printed on the back.

As Heard On: Rodgers used the 00-18 to record “The Soldier’s Sweetheart” and “Sleep Baby Sleep.” Both from the Bristol Sessions, they would be the rocket fuel that powered Rodgers’ ascent when they were released two months after the sessions.

As Heard On, Part 2: Rodgers used another model, the 00-45, to record his signature hit, “Blue Yodel.”

Strange But True: Rodgers actually had an endorsement deal — when such things were unheard of — with the Philadelphia-based Weymann company. Its circa-1931 “Jimmie Rodgers Special Model 890” sold for $90, a fortune during the Great Depression. – A. STEWART

Ron Wood - Zemaitis Metal Front

Tony Zemaitis, a London-born luthier, initially made waves in the ’60s by crafting distinctive acoustic guitars for legends like Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and Donovan. However, in the ’70s, he shifted his focus to electric guitars, creating designs that drew even more attention. His exploration into the properties of aluminum on guitars began after a 1969 conversation with Clapton. Zemaitis discovered that incorporating an aluminum front enhanced the guitar by reducing feedback and improving tuning and intonation—plus, it looked incredibly cool.

One of his most famous electric models was commissioned by Faces and eventual Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood. Of the two guitars Zemaitis made for Wood, it was the second—with its black body and striking central metal plate—that became iconic. The design sparked a craze, drawing clients like Keith Richards, Bob Dylan, Marc Bolan, David Gilmour and Pretenders’ James Honeyman-Scott.

Specs: Many of Zemaitis’ metal plates were intricately tooled by shotgun engraver Danny O’Brien.

Stage Debut: Zemaitis built his first electric guitar for Tony McPhee of the Groundhogs.

Sold!: Zemaitis crafted only eight to 10 guitars annually. He retired in 2000 and died in 2002. These days, some of his original pieces can fetch upwards of $50,000. – B. TOLINSKI

Jerry Garcia - Doug Irwin Custom 1979 “Tiger”

Delighted with the craftsmanship of his custom Doug Irwin “Wolf” guitar, Jerry Garcia commissioned another instrument from Irwin, urging the luthier to “not hold back.” Irwin rose to the challenge, creating a guitar known as “Tiger,” distinguished by its “hippie sandwich” construction—a lamination of several layers of wood. This unique guitar also featured a tiger inlay near the tailpiece, and its solid brass binding and hardware contributed to its substantial weight of about 14 pounds.

Irwin crafted two more guitars for Garcia, “Rosebud” and “Headless.” But following Garcia’s death, a dispute ensued between Irwin and the Grateful Dead over the ownership of Jerry’s four custom guitars. The conflict was resolved in 2001, granting Irwin possession of both “Tiger” and “Wolf.”

Stage Debut: Garcia first played Tiger live at a concert in Oakland, Calif., on Aug. 4, 1979.

Retirement Party: Tiger was the last guitar Garcia used in public with the Grateful Dead, during a performance on July 9, 1995.

Sold!: Tiger was purchased by Jim Irsay, the owner of the Indianapolis Colts, for $957,500 in 2002. – B. TOLINSKI

Zakk Wylde - 1981 Gibson Les Paul Custom “The Grail”

When Zakk Wylde joined Ozzy Osbourne’s band in 1987, he sought a distinctive guitar to mark his new role. His choice fell on a white 1981 Les Paul Custom equipped with EMG pickups, which he eventually obtained by trading a double-neck Gibson EDS-1275 with a friend. But Wylde faced a challenge: the legendary Randy Rhoads was famously associated with a similar white Les Paul during his time with Ozzy. Seeking to carve out his own identity, Zakk opted to have his refinished in a unique oblong “vertigo” pattern. The customization resulted in a simpler, yet iconic, black and white bullseye pattern instead. Wylde embraced this unexpected design, which soon became his signature “The Grail.”

As Heard On: Wylde composed “Miracle Man,” his first song for Ozzy, on the Grail.

Strange But True: In 2000, the Grail temporarily vanished after accidently falling out of a truck on the way to a Texas gig. Fortunately, it survived its ordeal and was recovered.

Retirement Party: In recent years, Zakk has favored instruments from his own Wylde Audio guitar line. – B. TOLINSKI

H.E.R. - Signature Chrome Glow Stratocaster

H.E.R. is the first Black woman to receive a signature Fender model, and it’s a doozy – a chrome-covered Strat that flashes iridescent in the light (reportedly in tribute to a nail-polish color she likes). There’s footage on YouTube of H.E.R. playing her first Strat when she was a kid, and her trademark guitar combines that same classic feel (its vintage vibe includes a mid-’60s C-shaped neck) with modern touches (a pearlescent glow finish).

Stage Debut: At the 2020 Primetime Emmys, playing “Nothing Compares 2 U” during the In Memoriam segment, as a tribute to the late Sinéad O’Connor.

Specs: The Strat has three Fender Vintage Noiseless pickups, meant to ensure a cleaner tone.

Strange But True: H.E.R. famously played a see-through Strat at the 2019 Grammy Awards. Crafted out of acrylic and entirely clear, it was custom built by Fender in a week. – A. STEWART

Billy Gibbons – Dean Z "Fur" Guitar

By 1984, ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill weren’t lacking for woolliness. But they turned the hirsute quotient up to 11 with the Dean Z “fur” guitar and bass they brandished in that year’s “Legs” video. Gibbons had played a Dean ML model on the accompanying album, 1983’s Eliminator , and Dean Guitars founder Dean Zelinsky offered to build custom instruments for the band for the supporting tour. Gibbons had one request: incorporate some sheepskins he had purchased in Scotland into the design. Up for the challenge, Zelinsky delivered a white guitar and bass, the Eliminator logo emblazoned on the fretboards, and (as requested) matching sheepskin finishes. The results even upstaged the video’s star attraction – the various pairs of legs showcased throughout the clip.

Strange But True: After covering the guitar and bass with sheepskin, Zelinsky used electric horse shears to shave a path down the center of the bodies to make room for the pickups, tailpiece and strings.

Strange But True, Part 2: The build stretched into the 11th hour. “I remember we were still gluing the fur on the tuning keys when the FedEx driver showed up to pick up the guitars,” Zelinsky recalled. “He waited while we boxed them up; they had to make it to the video shoot the very next day.”

Strange But True, Part 3: The instruments featured an attachment that enabled them to be spun 360 degrees from Gibbons and Hill’s waists while being played. – R. BIENSTOCK

Kurt Cobain - 1959 Martin D-18E

A bungled attempt by acoustic guitar manufacturer Martin to make inroads into the growing electric guitar market of the late ’50s, the D-18E — essentially a D-18 dreadnought guitar fitted with two DeArmond pickups, two tone controls and a volume control — was produced for only one year and would have been nothing more than a seldom-discussed oddity if Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain hadn’t purchased one from Voltage Guitars in Los Angeles in the fall of 1993. When Nirvana came to New York to record their unforgettable MTV Unplugged performance on Nov. 18 of that year, Cobain played the guitar (which, much to the show’s producer’s dismay was plugged into two effects pedals and a Fender Twin amplifier) for the entire epochal performance, giving the much-maligned D-18E a belated star turn.

Middleman: Cobain was not happy with the sound produced by the D-18E’s DeArmond pickups and had a Bartolini 3AV pickup installed in the sound hole between them, which he used exclusively for Unplugged .

Sold!: Cobain reportedly paid $5,000 for his Martin in 1993. In 2022, it sold at auction for more than five million dollars.

Lucky 7: Martin production records indicate that Cobain’s guitar, serial number 166854, was the seventh D-18E produced. – TOM BEAUJOUR

Wayne Kramer - American Flag Stratocaster

Inspired by Pete Townshend and The Who’s British-flag pop-art iconography, the guitarist motivated his protopunk band, Detroit’s MC5, to hang American flags over their guitar amps . It was a way of reflecting the counterculture in general and protesting the Vietnam War specifically: “The idea was, it’s my flag, too. It’s not just the right-wing flag,” Kramer told guitar.com in 2022, two years before his death. “I decided to have my guitar painted with that motif.” Kramer initially painted his white Strat with red stripes, then added the blue-and-white stars pattern to the pickguard. He also added a humbucker to make his solos louder.

Strange But True: In the ’70s, Kramer was an addict and offered the guitar to a Detroit music store to raise cash — only to be told he’d ruined it with the stars and stripes. To sell it, Kramer had to repaint it. “I suspect somewhere in Michigan there’s a Stratocaster in a case under the bed that nobody’s seen in 50 years,” he said.

Talk of the Town: “I’m a guitar-rock guy,” Kramer once told Detroit Artists Workshop. “I love loud guitars and that’s the way I still play.” – S. KNOPPER

Dave Grohl - 1967 Gibson Trini Lopez Standard

In the swinging ’60s, Trini Lopez made his mark as Gibson’s premier signature artist, captivating audiences with uptempo folk-rock hits like “If I Had a Hammer” and “Lemon Tree.” Although Lopez’s popularity has faded, Dave Grohl has significantly helped in keeping his legacy alive by using his signature Gibson guitars during his performances with Foo Fighters in some of the world’s most famed venues.

Grohl acquired his first Trini Lopez guitar in 1992 from a guitar shop in Bethesda, Maryland, using his earnings from his tenure as Nirvana’s drummer. He was searching for a guitar that was versatile enough to play acoustically at home and powerful enough to electrify audiences in large venues like Madison Square Garden. The guitar’s distinctive diamond-shaped F-holes and elegant headstock particularly drew Grohl’s attention, leading him to develop a deep appreciation for Lopez’s design and become an avid collector of other Trini guitars.

Shop Talk: Dave Grohl once remarked , “I didn’t really know anything about Trini Lopez when I bought the guitar. I thought it was unusual.”

Specs: Trini Lopez specifically requested that Gibson incorporate a unique Fender-style six-on-a-side headstock in his design.

Specs: In 2024 Epiphone released the Dave Grohl DG-335, designed in conjunction with Grohl and boasting diamond-shape f-holes and other distinctive features from his beloved ’67 Trini. – B. TOLINSKI

Nancy Wilson - Gibson SG Junior with Bigsby

One of Wilson’s most beloved guitars, she reportedly purchased the then-burgundy woodgrain Gibson at a used guitar store and modified it with a Bigsby Vibramate and a single Kent Armstrong P-90 pickup that gives the guitar its down-and-dirty sound.

As Heard On: The SG was Wilson’s go-to guitar for live versions of Heart’s “Barracuda.”

Signature Specs: The back of the SG is emblazoned with a large sticker of the U.S. Marine Corps logo — a tribute to Wilson’s father, who was in the military.

Sold! : In 2022, Wilson put a number of guitars from her collection on sale through the Reverb.com website, including the SG, which was listed for $100,000. It’s unclear who purchased it. — FRANK DIGIACOMO

Waylon Jennings - "No. 1" Leather-Covered Fender Telecaster

Of the five guitars that Jennings used onstage, “No. 1” and “No. 2” were mid-’50s Telecasters. (They’ve been referred to as both 1953 and 1954 models in descriptions.) The first was a gift from his band the Waylors in the early ‘60s when they were playing the Phoenix club scene: a Butterscotch Blonde Tele that they had covered in black leather decorated with a cream-colored floral pattern and spiral stitching around the perimeter of the guitar.

Strange But True: According to Waylon’s son Shooter Jennings, the band paid around $40 for the Telecaster. Other accounts say the band shelled out another pittance to either a janitor or bartender at the club they were playing to add the hand-tooled leather sheath.

Signature Specs: Jennings used a banjo key on the low E string with a 1:1 ratio — the number of turns required to change the pitch from, say, an E to a D (the average is 18 turns). The key made the change instant.

Sold!: No. 1 remains with Jennings family, but Nicole Kidman dropped close to $100,000 to buy “No. 3” — a 1950 Fender Broadcaster — at auction for her husband Keith Urban. Keith Richards acquired the ’67 Telecaster that was one of the Jennings five. — F. DIGIACOMO

Jeff Beck - "Wired" Fender Stratocaster

Jazz fusion great John McLaughlin often praised Jeff Beck as the “best guitarist alive.” The feeling was mutual, with Beck raving that McLaughlin’s playing was “unequaled.” Their respect for each other was evident when they toured together in 1975. During this time, Beck smashed his beloved ’62 Stratocaster. As a kind gesture, McLaughlin bought Beck a replacement—a white Stratocaster from Norman’s Rare Guitars in Tarzana, California. Tragically, this guitar, which graced the cover of Beck’s 1976 album Wired , was stolen soon after it was acquired. Unfazed, McLaughlin stepped in once more, purchasing another white Strat for Beck. It is believed that this guitar, alongside the repaired ’62 Strat, were the ones Beck played on Wired , an album that showcased his mastery and innovation on the electric guitar.

Shop Talk: Jeff Beck expressed his straightforward view on instruments to Guitar World in 2014: “When it comes to guitars, I don’t really give a damn about ‘custom this’ and ‘custom that.’ Most of what I need is in my fingers. You know, let’s hear it for the fingers!”

Talk of the Town: While Beck’s album Wired is hailed as a seminal work in jazz fusion, Beck himself did not identify as a jazz musician. However, he felt a deep honor when jazz legend Charles Mingus commended him for his sensitive rendition of Mingus’s own “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat.”

Chart a Course: Wired peaked at No. 16 on the Billboard 200 and was also released in a special four-channel quadraphonic edition. – B. TOLINSKI

Prince - Auerswald Symbol Guitar

Prince employed a futuristic-looking Jerry Auerswald guitar – the Model C – on late ’80s efforts like Sign o’ the Times and Lovesexy . In 1993, in the midst of a contract dispute with his label, Warner Bros., he changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol and recruited the German luthier to build him a guitar in the same shape. Known as the Auerswald Symbol (or Love Symbol) guitar, Prince played the gold creation during the period surrounding his 1995 album The Gold Experience . He later used models in various colors, including black and white, and capped his 2007 Super Bowl XLI Halftime Show performance by playing “Purple Rain” with a Schecter-built version – finished, of course, in purple.

Specs: Carved maple body and neck, “arrow” headstock, gold-plated heart-shaped tuning knobs, EMG pickups (single coil and humbucker).

As Seen On: Prince plays the original Auerswald in the official music videos for The Gold Experience ’s “Endorphinmachine” and “Gold.”

Rarity: The gold Auerswald, reportedly the only Prince-owned Symbol model still in existence, resides in the collection housed at Paisley Park, Prince’s home and studio in Chanhassen, Minn. – R. BIENSTOCK

Elvis Presley - 1942 Martin D-18 "Sun Sessions"

Known as the “Sun Sessions” guitar, Presley used this Martin on his early classics at Sam Phillips’ studio between 1954 and 1956. It’s unclear exactly which songs he played the guitar on, but among the songs from these sessions were “That’s All Right,” “Good Rockin’ Tonight,” “Blue Moon of Kentucky” and “Mystery Train.” Presley affixed the letters from his first name on the body, but the “S” has disappeared over time, so it still reads: “ELVI.” Presley purchased the guitar at Houck’s Piano Store in Memphis, trading in his Martin 000-18 as part of the price. “There is also extensive wear visible on the guitar due to Presley’s hard strumming,” observed Guitar World before the Martin went up for auction.

Sold!: In 2020, the guitar sold for $1.32 million to an undisclosed buyer through auction house Gotta Have Rock and Roll.

On Display: New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art included the Martin in its “Play It Loud: Instruments of Rock & Roll” exhibition in 2019. – S. KNOPPER

Clarence White - Martin D-28 Herringbone

For an instrument sometimes hailed as “the Holy Grail of bluegrass guitars,” Clarence White’s Martin D-28 had an inauspicious start. In 1959, a teenaged White bought a heavily damaged, 20-some-year-old acoustic guitar, which was soon fixed up by a Los Angeles luthier named Milt Owen , who admitted the result was far from perfect. But the guitar isn’t famous for being beautiful: It’s the instrument on which the dexterous White – as part of the folk revival outfit Kentucky Colonels — helped popularize the acoustic guitar as a lead instrument in bluegrass (acoustics were mainly seen as rhythm instruments prior to the innovations of White and Doc Watson, among others). By the time White began playing with the Byrds, the Martin D-28 was out of his life – but its influence on future generations of bluegrass players was set. In fact, Tony Rice – a disciple of White’s – owned and played the guitar for years.

Battle Scars: For whatever reason, someone had carved away at the Martin D-28’s sound hole before White bought it. Perhaps deciding a knife wasn’t enough, White upped the ante and shot it with a BB gun before parting ways with the guitar in 1965.

Talk of the Town: When Tony Rice bought White’s Martin D-28 in the ‘70s, he could barely believe his good fortune. “I kept waiting to wake up,” Rice told Fretboard Journal . “For days I was thinking, ‘It couldn’t possibly have been this easy.’” – J. LYNCH

Allen Collins - 1958 Gibson Explorer

The Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist went through a series of instruments during his time with the band, but in 1976 switched to the Explorer, in its original form one of the rarest and most coveted guitars Gibson has ever made. According to Ultimate Guitar , the company made just a handful of them during their initial run in 1958, and Collins’ Korina wood edition — replicated by Gibson with a 100-axe run in 2003 — became iconic.

Strange But True: According to his guitar tech , while playing in the Skynyrd successor Rossington-Collins Band in 1980, Collins tripped while running out onstage and broke the tip of the headstock off, then glued it back on with Elmer’s glue; when Gibson issued its signature, they recreated that aspect on purpose.

As Heard On: Street Survivors, the final album with Skynyrd’s classic lineup, which was released three days before the plane crash that killed three members of the band and almost claimed the life of Collins. — DAN RYS

Memphis Minnie - 1941 National New Yorker

One of the first electric guitars on the market, the 1941 National New Yorker Electric Spanish was the guitar of choice for Memphis Minnie when she went electric in the early ‘40s. The Queen of Country Blues’ playing on this hollow, sound hole-free guitar helped the blues evolve into early rock n’ roll and inspired artists from Jefferson Airplane to Bonnie Raitt.

Rarity Factor: One of the few hollow guitars with no sound holes, the National New Yorker is additionally rare because America’s entrance into World War II necessitated the reallocation of resources used to make that model. The one Minnie wielded featured a sunburst finish.

Talk of the Town: None other than 20th century poetry giant Langston Hughes had this to say about Minnie’s guitar playing: “Louisiana bayous, muddy old swamps, Mississippi dust and sun, cotton fields, lonesome roads, train whistles in the night, mosquitoes at dawn, and the Rural Free Delivery, that never brings the right letter. All these things cry through the strings on Memphis Minnie’s electric guitar, amplified to machine proportions — a musical version of electric welders plus a rolling mill.” — J. LYNCH

Joe Satriani - 1990 Ibanez JS Special "Chrome Boy"

Joe Satriani, known for his fluid playing technique and his distinctive bald look, has always mirrored the sleek and polished style he embodies. His breakout album, 1987’s Surfing with the Alien , notably features Marvel’s Silver Surfer on the cover, embodying the same smooth aesthetic. It’s no surprise that Satriani’s most iconic guitar, the 1990 Ibanez JS-2 Chrome Boy, boasts a brilliantly reflective silver finish that complements this theme perfectly. Although the original “Chrome Boy” offered exceptional sound, its finish was prone to peeling due to Ibanez’s then-unperfected chroming technique. Ironically, Satriani observed that each time the guitar was refinished, its sound improved, eventually making it one of his favorite instruments.

Specs: Since its inception in 1990, Ibanez has created five different versions of the Chrome Boy.

Strange But True: Satriani notes that it wasn’t until the fourth iteration, the JS1CR30, that Ibanez finally perfected the chroming process, joking, “They figured it out…it only took 30 years!”

As Heard On: Chrome Boy’s distinctive sound can be fully appreciated on the 2001 album Live in San Francisco . – B. TOLINSKI

Ace Frehley - 1974 Gibson Les Paul Custom “Budokan”

The Spaceman has said he purchased the Cherry-burst guitar in 1976 at Manny’s Music on West 48th Street — once part of Manhattan’s much-mourned Music Row. He later modified it with three DiMarzio humbuckers, including a Super Distortion at the bridge — the Les Paul originally had just two pickups — which helped give KISS its distinctive roar.

As Heard On: Alive II

Retirement Party: According to acefrehleylespaul.com, although the Custom is most associated with Frehley and KISS, it was his primary guitar for the shortest period — 17 months between 1976 and 1978.

Sold!: Frehley’s axe was purchased by rare guitar collector Matt Swanson who licensed it to Gibson to create faithful replicas. — F. DIGIACOMO

Buck Owens -  Mosrite Red, White and Blue Acoustic

Bakersfield, Calif., was not only the home of “Act Naturally” writer and country superstar Buck Owens but of Semie Moseley, the luthier behind Mosrite Guitars, favored by the Ventures’ Nokie Edwards and the Ramones’ Johnny Ramone. In 1966, Owens was against the Vietnam War, but also against protesters burning the American flag, and he wanted a (relatively) subtle way to show his reaction. Together, he and Moseley designed a red, white and blue acoustic — and Owens convinced his fiddle and bass players to paint their instruments the same colors. When Owens starred on Hee Haw a few years later, he said in his autobiography, Buck ‘Em! , “It seems like everybody wanted to know where they could get one.”

Mass Distribution: Owens licensed the red, white and blue model to Chicago Musical Instruments, which sold each model for $82.95, often through the Sears catalog. Owens’ first check was for $15,000.

Six-String Stories: Rev. Ray Boatwright helped fund Moseley’s forays into the guitar-building business, co-signing on a band saw, tabletop drill press, air compressor and other tools, which Moseley used to build Mosrite #1 in the reverend’s one-car garage in 1954, according to Bakersfield Guitars: An Early History. Among the first to use his models: Lorrie and Larry Collins of the Collins Kids, a ’50s rockabilly duo. – S. KNOPPER

Mark Knopfler - 1937 National Style "O" 14 Fret

Mark Knopfler stuck primarily to Strats and Les Pauls in Dire Straits, but the most indelible guitar image connected to the band is that of his 1937 National Style “O” resonator, famously depicted floating in the blue sky, storm clouds gathering in the background, on the cover of their Billboard 200-topping 1985 album Brothers In Arms. Knopfler purchased the National from guitarist and friend Steve Phillips in the ‘70s and used it extensively in the studio and onstage with Dire Straits and in his solo career. He has described its tone as “somewhere between the guitar and a piano,” which is pretty much exactly how it sounds on his most famous performance with it – the beautifully fingerpicked melody that leads the 1980 classic “Romeo and Juliet.”

As Seen On: The guitar also appears on the back cover of Brothers In Arms , this time as a painting by German artist Thomas Steyer.

Specs: National manufactured the first resonator guitars in 1927, designed with a metal body and interior speaker-like cones to produce more volume than acoustics in the pre-amplification days. Three years later, the brand introduced the Style O, boasting a nickel-plated brass body, with a “chickenfoot” coverplate on the front and an etched Hawaiian island scene on the back.

Strange But True: In 1973 Knopfler briefly played with an English pub rock band named Brewers Droop (slang for alcohol-induced erectile dysfunction). Sixteen years later some of these recordings were released on the album The Booze Brothers , the cover of which parodied the Brothers In Arms art — this time with the neck of Knopfler’s National experiencing the dreaded “droop.” – R. BIENSTOCK

Brian Jones - Vox Mark III "Teardrop"

Although Rolling Stones co-founder Brian Jones played many guitars during his tenure with the band, he is most closely associated with the teardrop-shaped white Vox Mark III presented to him by Tom Jennings (of Vox’s parent company, Jennings Musical Industries) in 1964. The guitar, which was a one-of-a-kind prototype built for Jones by Mick Bennett, featured two single coil pickups, a chrome pickguard, and ebony fretboard with a zero fret and a round vinyl cover that buttoned to the back of the guitar. Jones would first appear in public with the guitar on July 11 in Bridlington, Yorkshire, and he then used it for subsequent television appearances promoting the Stones’ then-new single “It’s All Over Now.”

Numbers Game: Once in production, the “teardrop” Mark III was rechristened the Vox Mark VI.

Fender Blender: When assembling Jones’ Mark III, Mick Bennett repurposed a Fender Stratocaster bridge that had been sawed off on one side to remove the hole for the tremolo arm.

Twin Tone: Vox built a companion 12-string Teardrop that was used during the Stones’ July 1964 appearances on the television show Ready Steady Go! – T. BEAUJOUR

Susan Tedeschi & Derek Trucks - 1993 American Standard Telecaster & Gibson Custom Dickey Betts SG

Both husband and wife are known for their playing prowess, though they come at it from very different directions. Trucks has long played his red SG — in fact, he’s rarely seen without it — in open E tuning with a classic thick glass slide, a nod to his guitar hero and Allman Brothers predecessor Duane Allman. Tedeschi, meanwhile, is less dogmatic and uses a rotation of guitars, but has become most known for her Telecaster, which Fender enshrined with a signature version modeled on her 1993 Caribbean Mist original.

As Heard On: Tedeschi’s 1998 album Just Won’t Burn features her original on the cover; Trucks has played his SG on more than a dozen albums across his solo band, three Allman Brothers records (and countless live albums) and a slew of Tedeschi Trucks Band releases.

Strange But True: Trucks’ custom SG was modeled on Gibson’s Dickey Betts SG, which itself is a replica of a 1961 SG that Dickey gave to Duane Allman, which Allman’s daughter then gave to Trucks. Got all that? — D. RYS

Rick Nielsen - 1981 Hamer Five-Neck

Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen is a guitarist given to eccentricities both sartorial and musical. One of his favorite absurdist acts of the late ’70s was to don up to five guitars at once, among them a Fender Stratocaster and a Gibson Les Paul Junior , for his unaccompanied guitar solo, playing each and then discarding it to reveal the next guitar underneath. Wishing to one-up himself, Nielsen originally approached his friends at Hamer guitars with the idea of a six-necked instrument that would twirl like a roulette wheel. He abandoned that idea in favor of a five-necked behemoth that included a 12-string at the top, three standard guitar necks in the middle and a fretless neck at the bottom.

Three’s Company: Nielsen commissioned two additional five-necks from Hamer after the original 1981 example: one a Korina wood hollow body, and one in his trademark checkerboard finish that he still brings on the road.

Chop Shop: The five-neck was constructed by modifying the bodies of five double-cutaway Hamer Sunbursts and attaching them together.

Early Adopter: Nielsen worked with Hamer from its inception and owns a Hamer guitar with the serial number #0000 – T. BEAUJOUR

Prince - Hohner HG-490 “Mad Cat”

His Purple Majesty played some one-of-a-kind axes, such as his custom-made “Cloud” and “Love Symbol” guitars, but his flamed maple top Hohner Mad Cat Telecaster knockoff was his primary guitar in the studio and onstage. Hohner, known for its harmonicas, began producing the Japanese-made Mad Cats in the 1970s until it was sued by Fender because its headstock was allegedly indistinguishable from Fender’s Tele.

Rarity Factor: Prince hired world-class luthier Roger Sadowsky to build six Mad Cat replicas for him.

As Heard On: Prince acquired the original in the late ‘70s — it is said that he liked the leopard-print pick guard because it jibed with his fashion sense — and used it for the recording of Purple Rain , among many other classic albums. He also played a Mad Cat during his mind-blowing solo on “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” at the 2004 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

Strange But True: Two of the Mad Cat replicas Sadowsky built were equipped with tubing to spray Ivory Liquid during the guitar masturbation scene in the Purple Rain movie. Sadowsky told Ultimate Guitar.com that he dubbed them the “Ejacucasters.” – F. DIGIACOMO

Dimebag Darrell - Dean ML “Dean From Hell”

One of the most iconic guitars in heavy metal has a pretty heartwarming origin story. A 14-year-old Darrell Abbott (chaperoned by his mom) won a Dean ML after smoking the competition at a guitar contest in Dallas. The future Dimebag Darrell sold the guitar to a friend, but it soon fell into the hands of his pal Buddy Blaze, a talented luthier who began toying around with it. Among other changes, Blaze tweaked the neck to emphasize the V shape, added a Floyd Rose bridge, moved the stock pickup to the neck, repainted the maroon axe a dark shade of aqua and applied a bitchin’ lightning bolt design. Not long after Phil Anselmo joined Pantera as its singer, Blaze put the guitar back in Dimebag’s hands, who fell in love with the guitar without realizing it was the same one he won as a kid. When Blaze revealed the fateful full-circle moment to him, the guitarist was ecstatic – and metal would never be the same.

As Seen On: An energized Dime sports the Dean From Hell (words that were scrawled on the guitar in marker) on the cover of Pantera’s iconic 1990 breakthrough, Cowboys From Hell.

Retirement Party: The well-loved guitar got knocked around onstage so much that Dime retired it in the mid ‘90s, bringing it out only on occasion. Fittingly, his beloved Dean From Hell was on display at his funeral after his murder in 2004. – J. LYNCH

Hank Williams - 1941 Martin D-28

The Shakespeare of country music made “nearly all his popular recordings with his Martin,” a 1940s acoustic that had an ebony fretboard, diamond-shaped inlays and the serial number 87422, according to Dick Boak’s Martin Guitar Masterpieces . Not much is known about the guitar’s origins, other than Hank Sr. purchased it from Tut Taylor, the dobro player who owned a Nashville guitar store, and recorded most of his classic recordings — from “Lost Highway” to “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” — with it. Hank Jr. is said to have inherited the guitar, which he reportedly sold for some shotguns.

Where It Is Now: Neil Young eventually wound up with the 1941 model and has played it regularly for years, telling crowds: “This is Hank’s old guitar,” sometimes introducing his song about it, “This Old Guitar.” Another model, circa 1944, was on display for years at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville. Boak called it “one of the most valuable guitars ever made.”

Talk of the Town: Nils Lofgren, who plays with Young and Bruce Springsteen, told guitar.com in 2022: “I think it was on ‘Walking on the Road.’ [Neil] was on an electric piano and he said, ‘Why don’t you try an acoustic guitar?’ and he just happened to have his Hank Williams guitar, ‘Hank.’ So now I’m playing acoustic rhythm on a guitar Hank Williams played. That was a beautiful thing.” – S. KNOPPER

Vernon Reid - ESP Custom

Reid had just formed Living Colour when he connected with the guys behind ESP, the Japanese guitar brand that had just launched in the U.S., and commissioned a custom model inspired by one he saw in the ESP offices that reminded him of Marvel’s Silver Surfer. The final version was, in a way, a bit of a collage of other inspirations: the swirl design he saw in the office; a guitar he had been using up to that point that was painted by graffiti-inspired artist Keith Haring; and a V-neck inspired by a ’63 Fender he had played in the past, with EMG active pickups, which were new at the time.

Six-String Stories: “The ESP coming into my life at that point was a shift,” Reid told the ESP site . “It was specifically for the band Living Colour. It was a colorful band name; I thought I should have a colorful guitar, right?”

As Heard On: Reid most famously used the guitar in writing “Cult of Personality,” the Grammy-winning first song off Living Colour’s 1988 debut Vivid . — D. RYS

Jack White - 1964 Valco Airline Res-O-Glas

Jack White has never been one to follow the beaten path, and his taste in guitars illustrates that. Those idiosyncrasies were especially evident during his years with The White Stripes, a period where White was often seen wielding a striking red-and-white 1964 Valco Airline Res-O-Glas. The angular guitar, crafted from fiberglass, was originally marketed through Montgomery Ward department store catalogs. The guitar was challenging to play, but it produced a uniquely jagged tone that resonated with White’s contrarian aesthetics. “If you want it easy, buy a new Les Paul or a new Stratocaster,” White once quipped , emphasizing his preference for instruments with character over ease of play.

Specs: The Valco Airline guitars lack truss rods; instead, their necks are reinforced with steel to maintain sturdiness.

Sold!: The price for a Valco Airline in 1964 was $99. These days they can fetch up to $3,000.

Under the Influence: During his time with the White Stripes, White also played a 1950s-era Kay Hollowbody, favored by bluesman Howlin’ Wolf, and a Gibson L-1 acoustic, known for its association with blues legend Robert Johnson. – B. TOLINSKI

Carlos Santana - Custom 1980 Paul Reed Smith

Before Paul Reed Smith established PRS Guitars, now one of the premier electric guitar and amplifier manufacturers globally, he was a modest luthier in Maryland. Smith had already crafted guitars for musicians like Peter Frampton and Ted Nugent when he targeted Carlos Santana, celebrated for his exceptional sound and selective choice in instruments. In 1980, Smith managed to secure a meeting with Santana, who was immediately impressed with a custom guitar Smith presented. The endorsement from Santana not only put Paul Reed Smith on the map but also kickstarted a lasting collaborative friendship.

Shop Talk: Carlos Santana initially remarked that the first guitar Paul Reed Smith crafted for him was so exceptional it must have been an “act of God,” and challenged Smith to replicate the feat. “After the fifth instrument, which was a doubleneck, he called me up and said, ‘Okay, you’re a guitar maker,'” Smith recalled to Premier Guitar in 2023.

Strange But True: In the early 2000s, Santana challenged PRS to design a high-quality yet affordable guitar, leading to the creation of the Santana SE (Student Edition) in 2001.

Specs: At Santana’s behest, Paul Reed Smith designed a revolutionary new tremolo system that incorporated miniature rollers on each string to reduce friction. – B. TOLINSKI

Courtney Love - 1994 Fender Venus

Love’s trademark guitar, built for her in the Fender Custom Shop, takes its cues from a Rickenbacker and a vintage green Mercury she used to play. The Venus (in Surf Green, with a matching headstock and a single pickup) was later replicated and sold as the Squier Venus.

Rarity Factor: It was custom built for Love by master luthier Larry Brooks, who had previously collaborated with Kurt Cobain. According to Brooks , Love’s “ballsy-toned” Venus was built without a volume knob at her manager’s request, so it couldn’t be damaged or grabbed when crowdsurfing.

Sold!: The Venus sold on online instrument marketplace Reverb for $68,289.95 in 2022. – A. STEWART

Bruce Springsteen – ca. 1953 Fender Esquire-Telecaster Composite

Springsteen was 22 when he bought this Frankensteined Fender from New Jersey luthier Phil Petillo for $185, which he later called “the best deal of my life.” An early-’50s composite of an Esquire (the neck) and a Telecaster (the body) housed in honeyed blonde wood, it had been heavily refashioned with four pickups and a wooden chunk behind the black pickguard removed. It was a “mutt,” Springsteen said, but he learned how to make it talk, and the guitar has accompanied him on his storied ascent from Jersey clubs to stadiums, even making an appearance on the Born to Run album cover.

Six-String Stories: “This feels like my arm,” Springsteen told Stephen Colbert in 2021. “If I have this guitar, I don’t have anything on. This became an extension of my actual body.”

Strange But True: To ensure the guitar made it through a typical sweat-a-thon Springsteen concert, Petillo had it waterproofed.

Retirement Party: Springsteen hasn’t brought the now-fragile guitar on the road in years, preferring to use dupes instead, though he still records with it, and played it during his 2009 Super Bowl halftime show. It has also been on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. – A. STEWART

Pete Townshend - 1976 Gibson Les Paul Deluxe “#5”

Some of the most classic-Who-ish photos of Townshend performing live in the late ’70s — windmilling, leaping, sneering — involved this wine-red guitar stamped with a large white “5.” Although Townshend was known in the ’60s for his Gibson SGs, he shifted to Les Pauls in the ’70s for a heavier sound, and played a variety of them, sticking numbered decals on the bodies so he could quickly select one with distinctive capo settings during live shows. He had one problem with the model: its neck. “Under the rough treatment I give them, they don’t seem to last very long,” he told Sound International in 1980.

As Seen On: The Who’s performances in The Kids Are Alright documentary, including “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” from Shepperton Studios, U.K., in 1978.

Talk of the Town: Townshend switched from the SG to the Les Paul Deluxe after Gibson took the SG of the market, which caused logistical problems for the destructive guitarist. “I don’t break them deliberately anymore, but when I spin them around, when I’ve had a few drinks, I bang them and they crack and they break.” Eventually, he contacted Gibson for custom models, and the company responded with four, at $3,000 a pop. He was displeased with them and picked up the Deluxe instead. – S. KNOPPER

Eric Clapton - Gibson Les Paul Standard “Beano”

Clapton was a 21-year-old British guitar phenom when he recorded Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. The 1966 album (nicknamed “Beano” because Clapton is reading a Beano comic book on its cover) kickstarted a worldwide blues-rock revolution. Throughout, Clapton played a ‘59 or ‘60 (probably a ‘60, due to the shape of its neck) Les Paul Standard with a sunburst finish, also nicknamed Beano, plugged into a topped-out Marshall amp , a sound that would change history. The Burst disappeared from a church basement in London during rehearsals for the first gig by Clapton’s next group, Cream, further cementing its journey into myth. Beano’s whereabouts remain unknown.

Strange But True: According to Clapton, whoever stole Beano came back to steal its case a few weeks later.

Six-String Stories: Few clear pictures of Beano exist, which will make authentication difficult if it ever turns up. Clapton has described it as red-gold in color, with one cutaway and cigarette marks pocking the front. “Just magnificent,” he told Guitar Player in 1985. “I never really found one as good as that. I do miss that one.” – A. STEWART

Lead Belly - ca. 1930 Stella 12-String

The guitar that changed the world was a workmanlike 12-string Stella, canonized by Louisiana blues and folk artist Huddie Ledbetter, known as Lead Belly. Writer Ross Altman once called Ledbetter, whose music would prove foundational to the development of rock n’ roll, a “one-man heavy metal band.” Everything about the Stella was heavy (the weight of its strings and body) and rumbly (Ledbetter probably used a lower version of standard tuning, but no one really knows for sure). The Stella was large and long-scaled, its strings widely spaced, in order to accompany Lead Belly’s large hands.

Sold!: On Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged performance, Kurt Cobain describes being approached by the Lead Belly estate to buy the Stella for $500,000, which even Cobain couldn’t afford. (Would David Geffen buy it for him? Cobain wondered. He would not.) According to representatives from the bluesman’s estate, Lead Belly’s niece wanted to sell the guitar to Cobain, but asked to meet him first, so he could reassure her he wasn’t going to smash it. The meeting never took place.

As Heard On: Lead Belly used the Stella on some of the best-known versions of now-standards including “Goodnight Irene,” “The Midnight Special” and “Where Did You Sleep Last Night” (though many versions of each song exist). – A. STEWART

Buddy Holly - 1954 Fender Stratocaster

Holly was struggling in geometry, and responded to this problem by trading his acoustic Les Paul (and a borrowed $1,000) for a new Fender model called the Stratocaster, changing the trajectory of rock n’ roll forever. (OK, fellow Strat aficionado Carl Perkins, and others, had something to do with it, too.) Holly used the axe he purchased at Adair Music, in his hometown of Lubbock, Texas, to play those famous downstrokes on mid-’50s classics “That’ll Be the Day,” “Peggy Sue” and the rest. Holly lost this model after a tour-bus theft in Michigan — so the guitar did not die with him in the fatal plane crash of 1959 that claimed the lives of Richie Valens and the Big Bopper, too.

Where Is It Now?: Nobody knows, but a 2019 documentary, The ’54, suggests an Australian producer and collector purchased it by random chance in Lubbock in 1979.

Talk of the Town: Fender called him “the first high-profile rock n’ roller to adopt the Fender Stratocaster as his guitar of choice.” Holly-inspired Strat forebears include George Harrison, Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck. – S. KNOPPER

Bob Marley - 1958 Les Paul Special

In May 1973, Bob Marley poked his head into Top Gear, a funky music shop in London known for its second-hand guitars. Among the odds and ends, he noticed an unusual Les Paul Special heavily modified by its previous owner, Dan Armstrong, the inventor of the famous Ampeg Dan Armstrong Lucite acrylic guitar. Armstrong put fingerboard markers where dots had been and a white plastic binding around the headstock. Captivated, Marley bought the guitar and used it as his primary stage and studio instrument for the rest of his career.

Yet, the modifications didn’t end there. Marley admired Jimi Hendrix and reached out to his tech, Roger Mayer, to see if he could create something that would make the Les Paul distinctly his own. Mayer told Reverb in 2021 that he suggested an elliptical aluminum plate under his pickup switch that would “be like a third eye looking out from the guitar,” and adding a matching brushed aluminum pickguard. Marley used it until his death in 1981.

Strange But True: Before Marley acquired it, the guitar was briefly owned by Marc Bolan of T. Rex, who exchanged it back to Top Gear for a Les Paul equipped with humbucking pickups.

Icon Status: Following Marley’s death, his Les Paul Special was declared a national treasure by the Jamaican government.

Retirement Party: The Bob Marley Les Paul Special is currently on display at the Bob Marley Museum in Kingston, Jamaica. – B. TOLINSKI

Jerry Cantrell - 1984 G&L Rampage "Blue Dress"

Jerry Cantrell’s 1984 G&L Rampage, affectionately nicknamed “Blue Dress,” is a seminal piece from the grunge era. With Alice in Chains, Cantrell has wielded this guitar since he purchased it in Dallas in 1985, and it has featured on nearly all his recordings, including iconic tracks like “Man In the Box” and “Would.” The guitar’s design, inspired by Eddie Van Halen’s iconic Frankenstein, includes a distinctive circle and square pattern. Notably, it features a pinup girl in a blue dress—a sticker designed by the renowned French painter Alain Aslan, sourced from the adult magazine, which gives the guitar its nickname.

Strange But True: G&L was the creation of former Fender masterminds Leo Fender and George Fullerton (“G” for George and “L” for Leo).

Rarity Factor: The Rampage was introduced in 1984 and was one of G&L’s earliest models.

Shop Talk: “It’s nothing fancy,” Cantrell told Total Guitar in 2014. “There’s plenty of fancier, cooler guitars, but it’s always felt comfortable for me to play from the get-go.”

Missing In Action: Cantrell’s Rampage was thought to be stolen in 2024, but it was simply misplaced while in transit between a photo shoot and his recording studio. – B. TOLINSKI

Buddy Guy – Fender Stratocaster “Polka Dot”

For someone whose career dates back to the 1950s, it’s notable that the guitar most commonly associated with the Chicago blues legend wasn’t created until four decades later. Guy had been playing Strats since the ‘60s — he claims that Clapton and Jeff Beck picked them up because of him — but the polka dot design was crafted by his request in the early 1990s, as a tribute to his late mother; it first appeared on the album cover of 1994’s Slippin’ In , and he’s played it in concert ever since.

Six-String Stories: “I promised [my mother] that I was going to buy her a polka dot Cadillac to make her feel better, because she had had a stroke and she never saw me play … I was going to get famous and drive back to Louisiana in a polka dot Cadillac to show her I’d made it,” he told Guitar World in a 2015 interview. “So I finally got the guitar company, Fender, to make me a guitar with the polka dots, and they’ve made quite a few of them now.”

As Heard On: Guy played Strats for years, but the polka dot motif shows up on Slippin’ In, Heavy Love, Rhythm & Blues and The Blues Is Alive and Well. — D. RYS

Peter Frampton - 1954 Les Paul Custom “Phenix”

Gifted to him in 1970 at a Humble Pie gig in San Francisco, “Phenix,” a heavily modified 1954 Gibson Les Paul, would become Peter Frampton’s go-to guitar for a decade. Appearing on albums like Humble Pie’s Rock On and Performance Rockin’ the Fillmore , the black Les Paul would become lodged in the popular culture firmament in 1976, when it was pictured with the guitarist on the cover of his eight-times platinum Frampton Comes Alive! double album. The guitar was presumed destroyed in 1980, when a plane carrying Frampton’s equipment crashed during takeoff on the island of Curaçao, but it had in fact been recovered from the wreckage by a customs agent. Spotted by a local luthier, the guitar was returned to Frampton in 2012. As it had truly risen from the ashes, it was dubbed “Phenix” by its rightful owner.

Triple Threat: When it left the Gibson factory in 1954, Phenix was originally equipped with one P-90 and one “staple” pickup, but it had been carved out to fit three humbucking pickups before Frampton acquired it.

Less Is More: In their literature of the period, Gibson referred to Les Paul Customs as “Fretless Wonders.”

Hiding In Plain Sight: During the almost quarter century that Phenix was MIA, it was seen being played by a local guitarist in Curaçao. – T. BEAUJOUR

Eric Clapton - 1964 Gibson SG “The Fool”

Eric Clapton’s 1964 Gibson SG, dubbed “The Fool,” is a vibrant testament to the psychedelic era. Painted by Marijke Koger and Simon Posthuma of the Dutch design collective The Fool, this guitar became synonymous with Clapton during his time with Cream. The artwork on the SG was commissioned by Robert Stigwood, the band’s manager, as part of a broader project (that also included custom designs for Ginger Baker’s drum kit and Jack Bruce’s Fender Bass VI) in preparation for Cream’s debut U.S. tour.

The Fool was more than just a showpiece; it played a crucial role in the production of Cream’s second album, Disraeli Gears , contributing to iconic tracks such as “Sunshine of Your Love” and “Strange Brew.” The guitar’s journey didn’t end with Clapton. After Cream disbanded, he passed the SG to George Harrison, who subsequently handed it down to Apple Records artist Jackie Lomax. Later, it found its way to Todd Rundgren.

Specs: The Fool was painted with oil-based enamel paint, in the gaudy DayGlo of the day.

Lookin’ Good: The centerpiece on the face of the guitar is a cherub whose curly hair was inspired by Clapton’s hairstyle at the time.

Strange But True: The original design extended onto the fretboard, which Clapton later had cleaned to avoid interference with his playability. – B. TOLINSKI

Robbie Robertson - 1954 Stratocaster 'The Last Waltz'

The Band guitarist Robbie Robertson purchased his 1954 Fender Stratocaster, then sporting a red finish, from Norman’s Rare Guitars in Tarzana, Calif., in 1973. Accustomed to playing Telecasters equipped with only two pickups, Robertson found that the Strat’s middle pickup often impeded his picking, and had it removed, opting instead to add a third pickup next to the bridge unit. As The Band was preparing to film the farewell concert that would be immortalized in Martin Scorsese’s 1978 documentary The Last Waltz , Robertson decided to mark the occasion by having the guitar’s body dipped in bronze, which is how it appears in the film and is etched into guitar history.

Dating Game: Robertson thought that his guitar dated to 1958, until he sent it to Fender’s Custom Shop to be duplicated for a limited edition run of exact recreations and it was completely disassembled and properly identified.

What About Bob?: Robertson used his Stratocaster extensively when he and the Band backed Bob Dylan on his 1974 Planet Waves album.

Heavy Metal: The process of bronzing the guitar’s body more than doubled the instrument’s weight. – T. BEAUJOUR

Joe Strummer - 1966 Fender Telecaster

Then frontman for the pub-rock band the 101ers, Joe Strummer purchased his 1966 Telecaster in 1975 with £100 that he had received for marrying a South African woman in need of a green card. At the time, the guitar still sported its original sunburst finish, but when Strummer joined The Clash in 1976, the Tele, deemed insufficiently punk, was sprayed over with black car paint. The word “noise,” long since worn off, was stenciled onto the guitar’s upper bout, and a now legendary “Ignore Alien Orders” sticker was affixed closer to the bridge. Strummer would use the increasingly worn guitar for his entire career, turning it into one of punk rock’s most powerful talismans.

Specs: Strummer would replace his Telecaster’s three-saddle bridge with a six-saddle version in the late ’70s, and the original Kluson tuners were at some point swapped out for sturdier Schaller M6 Mini Tuners.

Far Out: Although it’s difficult to place the exact source of “ignore alien orders,” the phrase was used by hippies in the 1960s and can be found on the inside of promotional Grateful Dead matchbooks from the early ’70s.

Sticker Shock: A limited edition, meticulous recreation of Strummer’s Telecaster was created by Fender’s Custom Shop in 2024. – T. BEAUJOUR

St. Vincent – Ernie Ball Music Man St. Vincent

Annie Clark, aka St. Vincent, has always had a flair for the unconventional. So it’s hardly surprising that she opted to go her own way with her signature guitar. “I could have revamped one of [Ernie Ball’s] existing models,” she told Guitar World . “I ended up just starting from scratch.” That meant something that took inspiration from everything from German synthpop artist Klaus Nomi to the ’80s Italian postmodern design movement Memphis Group. And to make it “sympathetic to the female form,” she kept the body light, and tapered in the center. The St. Vincent also sounds like a beast. For proof beyond Clark’s own body of work, just ask Jack White, who played one on Saturday Night Live in 2018, or Olivia Rodrigo, who rocked a purple St. Vincent “Goldie” on her Guts World Tour.

Specs: Lightweight Okoume body, roasted figured maple neck, rosewood fingerboard with custom St. Vincent inlays, three custom mini humbuckers.

Stage Debut: Aug. 25, 2015, during Taylor Swift’s 1989 World Tour at L.A.’s Staples Center. Clark and Beck joined Swift for a cover of Beck’s “Dreams.”

Strange But True: Clark’s guitar had not been publicly revealed when she debuted it on stage. When Swift later posted a photo of their performance on her socials, Ernie Ball’s website “nearly crashed,” CEO Sterling Ball recalled . “It was crazy.” – R. BIENSTOCK

Jimi Hendrix - Fender Stratocaster “Woodstock”

Although he didn’t iconically light it on fire, Hendrix’ white 1968 Olympic Strat, which he dubbed Izabella, was his guitar of choice for his historic Woodstock rewrite of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” which biographer Philip Norman described as “punctuated by drawn-out vibrato, flights into double time and long dying falls erupting into a feedback cacophony that somehow mimicked the war’s sounds.” Other songs Hendrix and his Band of Gypsys played in their two-hour August 18, 1969, set: “Foxey Lady,” “Fire,” “Spanish Castle Magic,” a 14-minute “Voodoo Child” and, of course, “Izabella.” Hendrix bought it at Manny’s Music in New York; it’s the final guitar he played in concert before his death at age 27 in 1970.

Specs: The Strat had an alder body, a two-piece maple neck and a Strat headstock that appeared upside down in Hendrix’s left-handed style.

On Display: Izabella hangs at MoPOP, the rock n’ roll history museum in Seattle. – S. KNOPPER

Randy Rhoads – Karl Sandoval Custom 1979 V

The Hollywood Sunset Strip was a breeding ground for guitar heroes in the 1970s, and having a custom guitar was a rite of passage. After spotting George Lynch, who would come to fame with Dokken, wielding a unique tiger-striped V at a local club, Randy Rhoads was determined to commission his own distinct version. Rhoads’ quest led him to Karl Sandoval’s workshop in Rosemead, just outside Los Angeles.

Randy desired a V-shaped guitar akin to Lynch’s but with specifications that mirrored his personal style—combining Gibson’s body with a Fender-style tremolo. In an interview with DiMarzio , Sandoval recalled, “Randy wanted it to feature 3/4-inch white dots on its black finish and bowtie-inlaid fret markers that matched his signature stage outfit.” After meticulous crafting, the guitar was completed at a cost of $740. “He wasn’t rich and famous yet, so it was a lot of money to him, but he was totally stoked.”

Strange But True: Sandoval never witnessed Rhoads perform live.

As Seen On: Randy Rhoads was famously filmed performing “Mr. Crowley” with this guitar during an appearance on the television show After Hours with Ozzy Osbourne’s band.

Rarity Factor: Besides Randy Rhoads and George Lynch, guitar legends like Eddie Van Halen also turned to Sandoval for their custom needs, underscoring the luthier’s impact on the rock scene. – B. TOLINSKI

Jerry Garcia - Doug Irwin Custom 1973 “Wolf”

Jerry Garcia cherished his collection of custom guitars, each christened with a singular nickname like “Alligator,” “Tiger,” “Rosebud” and “Lighting Bolt.” Among these, “Wolf” stands out as a masterpiece crafted by luthier Doug Irwin. Dubbed by Garcia as “twelve guitars in one,” Wolf’s advanced electronics provided an unparalleled range of tonal possibilities, making it central to recordings like the Grateful Dead’s Wake of the Flood (1973) and Terrapin Station (1977), and a fixture in countless live performances throughout the ’70s. The guitar’s name comes from its distinctive inlay—a whimsical cartoon wolf positioned below the bridge, which adds a touch of fun to this profound instrument.

Stage Debut: “Wolf” made its debut at a New York City performance for the Hells Angels in 1973 shortly after being delivered to Garcia.

As Seen On: It is prominently featured in 1977’s The Grateful Dead Movie , directed by Garcia, showcasing live stage footage.

Strange But True: Garcia played Wolf during the Grateful Dead’s historic 1978 concert in front of Egypt’s Great Pyramids.

Sold!: In 2017, Wolf fetched $1.9 million at a charity auction, underscoring its significant cultural and historical value. – B. TOLINSKI

Maybelle Carter - 1928 Gibson L-5

Mother Maybelle was a teenager in 1928 when she bought the guitar that would forever change country music. It had F-holes that resembled a violin’s and was an arch top in a world of flattops. Maybelle, a member of the nascent country trio the Carter Family, bought it because it was the fanciest one in the store. Until this moment, the flattop had primacy, but Carter’s L-5 was loud, elbowing its way to the forefront of the group’s sound. It made Maybelle country music’s earliest guitar hero and enabled her “Carter Scratch,” which gave the impression she was playing both rhythm and melody. It also made the Carter Family superstars, transformed the guitar into the central instrument in country music, helped the genre’s growth and influenced later greats like Chet Atkins and Johnny Cash, who would marry Maybelle’s daughter, June.

As Heard On: The Gibson was Carter’s lifelong companion, appearing on iconic Carter Family recordings “Wildwood Flower” and “Keep on the Sunny Side,” as well as her performance on the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s 1972 release, Will the Circle Be Unbroken.

Sold!: Carter bought her L-5 for $275, a fortune during the Depression. She never sold it, even later on when she was strapped for cash. In 2004, the L-5 sold for $575,000, then landed at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville. – A. STEWART

Joan Jett - 1977 Gibson Melody Maker

Melody Makers are known for being journeyman guitars, reliable if inelegant beaters that are light but solid, inexpensive and near impossible to destroy. Jett acquired her model near the end of her time in the Runaways. Made of mahogany and rosewood, it’s painted white, covered with stickers (“Girls Kick Ass”) and beat to hell. According to Jett, she added a killswitch and one Red Rhodes Velvet Hammer humbucker. She played it on her early solo hits “Bad Reputation,” “Crimson and Clover,” and “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll.”

Strange But True: Jett bought the guitar from Eric Carmen, of Raspberries fame, who had used it for years.

Six-String Stories: “I don’t even need to use it to record anymore, because I have a guitar that sounds pretty much like it,” Jett told Guitar World in 2017. “I’m actually kind of afraid to bring out the original. It’s got a great heritage. It’s a guitar full of hits.” – A. STEWART

Charlie Christian - Gibson ES-150

Christian manned a Gibson ES-150 when he joined Benny Goodman’s big band in 1939. Until then, “amplified” acoustic guitars were standard in big bands, playing mostly rhythm, but Christian “established the electric guitar as an instrument with its own voice and personality,” writes Walter Carter in The Gibson Electric Guitar Book . Soon Christian was performing at a Gibson guitar clinic in New York along with Les Paul — but unlike Goodman’s progressive bands, the clinics were segregated, and Paul appeared with white musicians while Christian could play only with his Black colleagues. Before his 1942 death of tuberculosis at just 25 years old, Christian switched to an ES-250.

Specs: A certain kind of Gibson single-blade pickup, with a hexagonal bobbin top, was known as the “Charlie Christian pickup,” or “CC pickup,” according to The Gibson Electric Guitar Book .

Talk of the Town: Jazz guitarist Mary Osborne referred to Christian’s sound as a “distorted saxophone.”

As Heard On: It’s not documented which guitar Christian played on which sessions during his brief career, but his most famous solos include those on Benny Goodman & His Orchestra’s “Air Mail Special” and “Solo Flight.” – S. KNOPPER

Tony Iommi - 1964 Gibson SG Special “Monkey”

Tony Iommi’s 1964 Gibson SG Special got its nickname from a whimsical sticker on its body showing a cartoon primate playing a fiddle. But make no mistake – “Monkey” is a seriously heavy instrument. It is the sound of Iommi, which makes it the sound of Black Sabbath, which makes it the sound of heavy metal itself. That Iommi began playing the guitar at all was a happy accident: In the earliest days of Sabbath, he favored a white Fender Stratocaster. But when the Strat’s pickup failed during recording sessions for the band’s 1970 debut, Iommi grabbed his backup – a cherry red, left-handed SG Special – and rock n’ roll hasn’t sounded the same since.

As Heard On: The Monkey was Iommi’s main guitar through much of the 1970s; it’s the axe powering everything from “Paranoid,” “Iron Man” and “War Pigs” to “Sweet Leaf,” “Supernaut” and “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.”

Specs: It boasts a custom John Birch designed neck pickup, as well as a neck coated in poly lacquer to make it easier for Iommi to navigate the frets with his middle and ring fingers – both of which he covered with thimbles after losing the tips in an accident at a sheet metal factory.

Signature Style: In 2020 the Gibson Custom Shop released the limited-edition Tony Iommi “Monkey” 1964 SG Special Replica, with each one hand-signed and numbered by Iommi himself. – R. BIENSTOCK

Prince - Dave Rusan Custom “Cloud”

Prince was known to be uncompromising in his music and career. But when it came to his iconic “Cloud” guitar, he left much of the design up to its builder, Dave Rusan. “His instructions were sketchy at best,” Rusan, then a luthier at Knut Koupee music shop in south Minneapolis, recalled to Guitar Player in 2022. Prince was a frequent customer, and when he needed a custom-built guitar for a movie he was working on called Purple Rain , Rusan took on the project. Armed with a few directives from Prince – long horn on the body similar to a Sardonyx bass he owned; white finish; gold hardware; EMG pickups – Rusan let his imagination do the rest. “I felt that the best plan was to make a guitar I would enjoy playing and hope that we both had the same taste.” The result, like almost everything Prince touched in the ’80s, was instantly iconic.

Stage Debut: Prince plays the Cloud in the climactic final scene of 1984’s Purple Rain , performing the titular track at Minneapolis nightclub First Avenue.

Rarity Factor: Rusan constructed two additional white Cloud guitars for Prince to use on the Purple Rain Tour, as well as one for a Warner Bros. Records giveaway. Cloud replicas from other luthiers and the Schecter guitar company came later. Rusan currently takes custom orders for the model via his own company, Rusan Original.

Strange But True: The original Cloud had a body of hard rock maple, a heavy wood. According to Rusan, this wasn’t a problem: “Prince was small, but he was very fit,” he told Premier Guitar . “A couple of times I wanted to speak to him, and [his people would] say, ‘Well, he’s working out in the back room.’ So he could handle it.” – R. BIENSTOCK

Joni Mitchell - 1956 Martin D-28

The guitar Joni Mitchell calls “my beloved” was a ‘56 Martin D-28 acoustic, given to her in 1966 by a U.S. Marine captain who had rescued it from an enemy attack in Vietnam. As if in some folk-rock version of Final Destination , the Martin would also barely survive being damaged in an airplane cargo hold. “When they cleared the wreckage, all that survived was this guitar,” she told writer Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers . “I don’t know whether the explosion did something to the modules in the wood, but that guitar was a trouper, man… I’ve never found an acoustic that could compare with it.” Eventually it was stolen from a luggage carousel, never to be seen again.

As Heard On: Much of Mitchell’s classic early work, ending with 1972’s For the Roses .

Strange But True: Childhood polio permanently weakened Mitchell’s left hand. Alternate tunings — which the Martin helped to enable — were less difficult for her to play. – A. STEWART

Steve Vai - Ibanez Jem

By 1987, Steve Vai was a bona fide guitar superstar. He had played with Frank Zappa, stepped into the unimaginably big shoes of Eddie Van Halen in David Lee Roth’s solo band and portrayed the devil’s own guitarist in the 1986 Ralph Macchio vehicle Crossroads . But he had yet to create his own signature instrument. After calling on a several manufacturers to submit prototypes, Vai settled on Japanese company Ibanez. His new guitar, the Jem, incorporated wild neon and floral finishes, fanciful fretboard inlays and several design innovations like a “monkey grip” handle in the upper bout, and a “bear claw” cavity behind the tremolo that allowed for wild ascending squeals.

That’s What Friends Are For: The Jem is named after Vai’s high school buddy Joe “Jem” Despagni, who built many of the guitarist’s early instruments.

Curtain Call: The floral-pattern material used on the late ’80s Jem 77-FP was chosen because Vai had it on curtains in his home.

One Louder: Vai’s second Ibanez signature guitar, a seven-string Jem (sans monkey grip) dubbed the Universe, was introduced in 1990. Used by him both solo and with Whitesnake, its extra-low B string allowed for new depths of heavy chugging and would later be embraced by nü-metal bands like Korn and Limp Bizkit. – T. BEAUJOUR

Slash - Kris Derrig Les Paul Replica

Few, if any, guitarists are more closely associated with the Gibson Les Paul than Slash. But the one he first came to prominence with is not a Les Paul at all – in fact, it’s not even a Gibson. Rather, it’s an LP copy made by Kris Derrig, a luthier who was connected to L.A.-based repair shop Music Works. When Guns N’ Roses were recording their soon-to-be-massive debut, 1987’s Appetite for Destruction , Slash — armed with a Jackson and a B.C. Rich, among other guitars — was struggling to get a decent tone in the studio. The band’s manager, Alan Niven, stopped into Music Works to find something that could help, and the owner showed him Derrig’s creation. Call it a gift or a last-ditch act of desperation, but Niven delivered the sunburst ’59 replica to the guitarist. “It just sounded f–kin’ perfect, man… like a gift from on high,” Slash told Guitar World in 2023.

Strange But True: Niven knew Slash was having guitar troubles when he showed up at the Appetite sessions and “there was a f–king [Gibson] SG though the windscreen, neck-first,” he told L.A. Weekly in a 2016 interview. “That’s a message that even I can understand.”

Shop Talk: Slash only played the Derrig live for a short period in 1987-1988, but it’s been with him in the studio his entire career. “For the Conspirators, Snakepit, Guns N’ Roses, and Velvet Revolver, it’s always been my main recording guitar,” he recalled in the 2022 book The Collection: Slash . “If I was on a desert island it would probably still be the one – it’s become sort of a part of me.”

Signature Style: In 2020 Gibson released the Slash Collection of guitars, which included a signature Les Paul with an “Appetite Burst” finish, a nod to the Derrig. – R. BIENSTOCK

Johnny Winter - 1964 Gibson Firebird V

During the psychedelic ’60s, when musicians competed to look more bizarre than the next, few could hold a candle to Johnny Winter, the wild blues-rocker from Beaumont, Texas. Signed to Columbia Records for a whopping $600,000 in 1968, Winter — with his long white hair and high-energy stage show — was outrageous, and he played an unusual guitar to match: an angular Polaris White 1964 Gibson Firebird V.

Appearing on the cover of Winter’s 1976 album, Captured Live! , the guitar was not only as distinctive looking as its owner, but also sounded different. As Winter explained , “The Firebird is the best of all worlds. It feels like a Gibson, but it sounds closer to a Fender. I have six of them, but the 1963 is the first one I ever bought, and it sounds the best. There’s nothing it can’t do!”

Legacy: In 2008, the Gibson Custom Shop honored Winter by releasing a signature Johnny Winter Firebird V, presented by Slash in a Nashville ceremony.

Rarity Factor: With fewer than 500 Firebird V models shipped in 1964, this guitar remains a prized possession among collectors.

Strange But True: The Firebird was designed by automobile designer Ray Dietrich, inspired by the sleek tailfins of mid-’50s cars. – B. TOLINSKI

Bob Dylan - 1964 Fender Stratocaster

When Dylan played the Newport Folk Festival in 1965, he had already released the Bringing It All Back Home album and a subsequent single, “Like a Rolling Stone,” both of which signaled a turn away from political folk and toward an electrified rock approach. But it was his performance there on July 25 that truly riled folk purists, when he appeared onstage with (gasp!) an electric guitar for the first time in his career. Dylan played just three songs with the instrument, a 1964 sunburst Fender Stratocaster, but the moment was as electric as the guitar slung around his shoulder, eliciting boos from the outraged Newport Folk audience (although some observers claim this was more in response to poor sound quality and his truncated set). Either way, the act was a milestone moment in Dylan’s career and music in general, kicking off the folk-rock movement in earnest.

Stage Debut: Newport, but it almost didn’t happen. Reportedly, Dylan only decided to “go electric” the night before his performance, after being annoyed by the treatment electric blues group the Paul Butterfield Blues Band received at the hands of festival organizers.

Strange But True: Not long after Newport, the guitar was left aboard a private plane. Pilot Victor Quinto attempted to return it but received no response, and it remained in his family’s attic for decades.

Sold!: In 2011 Quinto’s daughter, Dawn Peterson, had it positively ID’d as the Newport Strat via the PBS show History Detectives . Two years later, it was auctioned at Christie’s for $965,000, replacing Clapton’s “Blackie” as the most expensive guitar to date. – R. BIENSTOCK

Bonnie Raitt - 1965 Fender Stratocaster “Brownie”

Raitt bought her beloved ‘65 Strat for $120 in 1969 on the street at 3 a.m. It was unpainted, with the body of a ‘65 Strat and a neck from who-knows-when. She brought it home, named it “Brownie,” and hasn’t been separated from it since. (Except for raising the action, she has hardly modified it, either.) “For portability, sexiness, and the way it feels on your body, nothing beats a Strat,” Raitt told The Los Angeles Times in 2014. “When you strap on a Stratocaster, you feel just like your heroes. I don’t think you can separate how it makes you feel from the memory of other people playing it.”

Stage Debut: According to Raitt, she has played “Brownie” at every single show since they met.

Good Cause: Raitt was one of the first women to have a signature Fender named after her, circa 1995-96. She donated proceeds from the line to the Bonnie Raitt Guitar Project, an organization that helps underprivileged children. – A. STEWART

Malcolm Young - 1963 Gretsch 6131 Jet Firebird

Yes, we all know Angus’ Gibson SG. But just as indispensable to AC/DC’s six-string legacy – and maybe even more foundational to their trademark crunchy rhythms and riffs – is his brother Malcolm’s mainstay 1963 Gretsch Jet Firebird. Nicknamed, quite fittingly, “The Beast,” Malcolm began using the instrument with AC/DC in the early 1970s — and didn’t stop until he retired from the band in 2014. By that point, Malcolm, a primary architect of AC/DC’s sound and style, had helped write and record some of rock’s most well-known and beloved anthems – “Highway to Hell,” “Back in Black,” “You Shook Me All Night Long,” “Thunderstruck,” and about a million others, give or take. Malcolm passed away in 2017 after a years-long battle with dementia, but his legacy in AC/DC is carried on by his nephew Stevie Young, who assumed his place in the band and, like his uncle, proudly plays a Gretsch Jet Firebird onstage.

Origin Story: “The Beast” came to Malcolm via his older brother, George Young, and Harry Vanda, both of whom were members of Australian rock band the Easybeats and later became AC/DC’s producers.

Specs: Originally red, the guitar’s paint was stripped away in the late ‘70s to expose the wood beneath. Malcolm also replaced the bridge and removed two of the three pickups entirely, leaving two empty cavities in the body where they were once housed.

Signature Style: In 2014, Gretsch honored Malcolm with the G6131MY-CS Custom Shop Malcolm Young “Salute” Jet, a note-perfect recreation of “The Beast,” “accurate down to every last nick, scratch and dent.” – R. BIENSTOCK

Billy Gibbons - 1959 Gibson Les Paul “Pearly Gates"

Billy Gibbons became infatuated with the sunburst Gibson Les Paul after seeing Eric Clapton holding one on the back cover of the Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton album. How he came upon his own ’burst is a story of epic proportions, even for a master yarn spinner like Gibbons: In a nutshell, Gibbons lent his car, a 1939 Packard, to an aspiring actress who drove it from Houston to Hollywood for an audition. After nailing the part, she sold the car and gave $250 in proceeds to the guitarist, who used it to procure a mint condition ’59 burst that had been gathering dust under a Texas rancher’s bed. Gibbons then took that guitar nationwide: Pearly Gates has played a central role on each and every ZZ Top album, from 1971’s ZZ Top’s First Album to 2012’s La Futura . Now it’s one of the most famous ’bursts in music history.

Name Game: Gibbons named his Les Paul after the 1939 Packard, telling Guitar Player in 2020, “We didn’t think the car would make it past El Paso. But it brought [the actress] all the way to Hollywood, and she got the part. We figured the car must have divine connections, so we named it Pearly Gates.”

Strange But True: Gibbons found an extra set of strings inside Pearly Gate’s case, and also a love note from a girlfriend of the original owner. It read: “I like what you do. Meet me later. You might like what I can do.”

Rarity Factor: The ’59 burst is considered the Holy Grail of electric guitars due to its top-notch construction, premium woods and stunning finish. With less than 650 shipped, it’s also incredibly rare, making the model among the most coveted in guitardom. – R. BIENSTOCK

Wes Montgomery - 1963 Gibson L-5-CES

A self-taught jazz guitar virtuoso with a smooth sound, Wes Montgomery was renowned for his distinct technique of plucking strings with the side of his thumb. He often played on a variety of Gibson models, but he was most closely associated with this 1963 Gibson L-5 CES (Cutaway Electric Spanish). Gibson later crafted three custom L-5s for Montgomery, tailored with single inverted pickups at the neck to enhance the sweetness of his sound. His prolific career ended with his untimely death from a heart attack in 1968 at just 45.

As Heard On: Stevie Wonder wrote two tributes to Montgomery: “Bye Bye World,” which appeared on his 1968 album Eivets Rednow , and “We All Remember Wes,” which George Benson recorded for his 1978 live album Weekend in L.A.

Strange But True: Montgomery’s thumb was double-jointed; he could bend it all the way back to his wrist.

Tricks of the Trade: Montgomery tried using a pick for several weeks. Although it enabled him to play faster compared to his thumb, it didn’t produce a sound he liked. – B. TOLINSKI

Woody Guthrie - Gibson L-00

The machine that kills fascists was designated by its maker, Gibson, as “parlor size,” meaning it’s smaller and (usually) shorter in scale — but still comfortable to play, worn-in and homey-sounding. Guthrie’s Gibson L-00 wasn’t much to look at, necessarily; its original color was probably black (it had been painted and repainted) with a fire stripe pickguard and 14 frets. Guthrie wasn’t sentimental about guitars – his or anybody else’s. They were merely utilitarian objects, tools of the song. He was quick to bang up his own, slow to return those he had borrowed, tended to leave them places and often didn’t use a case.

Strange But True: Guthrie’s “This Machine Kills Fascists” slogan, stickered or painted on this and numerous guitars, was actually co-opted from the U.S. War Department.

Sold!: It’s estimated that Guthrie owned, gave away, lost or forgot about hundreds of guitars. The whereabouts of most of them, including the Gibson L-00, are unknown. Billionaire Paul Allen (who co-founded Microsoft Corporation) had one. Another was allegedly found in a Seattle secondhand shop in the 1960s and sold for $2. – A. STEWART

Duane Allman - 1961 Gibson SG

In the early days of the Allman Brothers Band, Duane Allman relied on a single guitar, frequently retuning it to play slide—his specialty. Dickey Betts, his fellow guitarist and bandmate, admired Allman’s skill but found the constant tuning adjustments during performances annoying. To streamline their live shows, Betts handed over his cherry red 1961 Gibson SG to Allman, saying , “Here, take this guitar, tune it to your open E slide tuning, and leave it tuned!”

The gesture proved pivotal. Duane Allman’s use of the SG became legendary, particularly on tracks like “Statesboro Blues” and “Whipping Post” from the band’s classic 1971 live album, At Fillmore East . “He loved that guitar,” recalled Betts with a chuckle, recognizing that he had made the right decision.

As Heard On: Initially a practitioner of bottleneck slide guitar in standard tuning, Allman eventually gravitated to playing in the open E tuning heard on “Statesboro Blues” and “Trouble No More.”

Tricks of the Trade: Allman used a glass Coricidin cold medication bottle on his ring finger to create his fluid sound.

Under the Influence: Duane drew significant inspiration for his slide technique from blues harmonica greats like Little Walter and Sonny Boy Williamson, adapting their expressive bends and vibrato to his guitar work. – B. TOLINSKI

Kurt Cobain - 1969 Fender Mustang “Smells Like Teen Spirit”

A budget Fender made between 1964 and 1982, the Mustang was “cheap and plentiful” throughout Nirvana’s career, according to Kurt Cobain and Nirvana — a key attraction for Cobain, who played a left-handed model with a racing stripe down the middle in the “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video and another for “In Bloom.” “They sound like crap and are very small,” he told Guitar World in 1991, as Nevermind was breaking. “They also don’t stay in tune, and when you want to raise the string action on the fretboard, you have to loosen all the strings and completely remove the bridge.” Later, master guitar-maker Danny Ferrington helped him transform the Mustang into a more sophisticated Jaguar-and-Mustang hybrid.

Six-String Stories: Complaining about the Mustang, Cobain told Guitar World : “Whoever invented that guitar was a dork.” The interviewer responded, “It was Leo Fender.” To which Cobain said: “I guess I’m calling Leo Fender, the dead guy, a dork. Now I’ll never get an endorsement.”

Sold!: In 2022, Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay purchased Cobain’s instrument for $4.5 million in an auction by Julien’s, which had predicted it would go for $800,000. – S. KNOPPER

James Burton - 1969 Fender Telecaster, Paisley Red

Famed sideman and master of the playing style known as “chicken pickin,'” Burton has worked with everyone from Ricky Nelson to Phil Spector to Gram Parsons, though he’s best known as a member of Elvis Presley’s rhythm section, the TCB band. He used his bright paisley Tele, acquired in 1969, during his years with the King, and in thousands of studio sessions since. According to Burton, it has been frequently modified, with the bridge, hardware, neck and pickups all undergoing renovation. The paisley pattern was made using stick-on wallpaper known as cling-foil. Fender bought out the pattern’s stock, and later resorted to silk-screening.

Talk of the Town: Burton had been playing a ‘52 Tele when Fender offered to replace it with a bright pink and paisley ‘69 Tele that looked like something a hippie would play. When Burton first saw it, he was alarmed. “It shocked me,” he told the Musicians Hall of Fame & Museum. “I said ‘No, no, that’s not for me’… took it and played it, and it played really nice.”

Stage Debut: It took two weeks for Burton to work up the nerve to break out the guitar on stage in front of Elvis, because the Tele was flashy, and Presley could get upset about such things. But the King loved it. – A. STEWART

Les Paul - “The Log”

Disappointed with the Gibson electrics on the market throughout the ’30s, Les Paul, 26, spent his Sundays in 1940 sculpting pine planks at an Epiphone stringed-instrument factory in Manhattan. He came up with what Ian S. Port, in The Birth of Loud: Leo Fender, Les Paul and the Guitar-Pioneering Rivalry That Shaped Rock ‘n’ Roll , called, “a lumberyard mutant, a stick bound with steel cables, a wood shop project.” It took Gibson years — and intense competition from Fender, whose Telecaster was gaining popularity — to introduce the Les Paul model. It took off, becoming one of the most recognizable electric guitars in music history, the instrument of choice for Pete Townshend, Bob Marley, Slash and Eric Clapton.

Specs: The Log was a two-foot-long, four-by-four-inch piece of pine, to which Paul affixed a Spanish neck, a vibrato tailpiece, a bridge, electrical pickups and a fretboard.

Six-String Stories: “I took it to the bar out in Sunnyside [New York], and when I sat in with just the four-by-four, they laughed at me. When I put the wings on [the body], they thought it was a guitar and everything was fine,” Paul told The Guitar Magazine.

On Display: The Log is at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville. “It had this great sustain and this great tone that you couldn’t get with acoustic guitars,” museum editor Michael McCall told The Tennessean . – S. KNOPPER

Chet Atkins - Gretsch Country Gentleman

When Gretsch approached prolific session guitarist Chet Atkins to propose a branding deal in the ’50s, “I was on the Opry, I was playing on network radio shows, and I think I was already on national television,” Atkins said in Tony Bacon’s 50 Years of Gretsch Electrics . Atkins, who would become a superstar producer and help create the Nashville sound, soon received a prototype for the Chet Atkins Hollow Body 6120. He went back and forth with Gretsch, landing in 1957 on the Country Gentleman, named for his recent solo instrumental hit. “I started to use the Country Gentleman on my records continually,” Atkins said.

Notable Fan: George Harrison, who owned two models and played them with the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, instantly boosting Gretsch’s sales and production — and, says Guitar Center senior VP of merchandising Michael Doyle, “changing the course of popular music.”

Evolution of an Instrument: In 1981, Atkins had Gibson build him another Country Gentleman: “Rather than having to convince them about certain details of the guitar’s design, like I always had to do with Gretsch,” he later wrote in his autobiography Me and My Guitars , “the Gibson crew went all out to make sure I was happy.” – S. KNOPPER

Eric Clapton - Stratocaster "Blackie"

During his legend-making days with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers and Cream, Eric Clapton was an avowed Gibson man. But after seeing his future Blind Faith bandmate Steve Winwood play a Stratocaster, an intrigued Clapton walked into Nashville’s Sho-Bud guitar shop in 1970 and bought one – six, actually – Strats of his own, giving three away and keeping the others for himself. A few years later, he had Nashville luthier Ted Newman-Jones combine the best aspects from each – the black lacquer-finished alder body from a 1956 example; the one-piece maple neck from a ‘57; single-coil pickups from the third model – and “Blackie,” one of the most iconic “mongrel” electric guitars in rock history, was born.

Stage Debut: January 1973, London’s Rainbow Theatre. The concert was organized by Pete Townshend, who received one of the six Sho-Bud-purchased Strats.

Retirement Party: Clapton retired it after his tour for 1985’s Behind the Sun due to wear and tear on the neck. Shortly after, he worked with Fender to design a custom Stratocaster based on it.

Talk of the Town: Seth Walker tells Billboard that “Blackie” was one of the “first heavies that influenced my playing and truly inspired me to lean into this beautiful and mad affair. My first electric guitar was a black Fender ‘Squire’ Strat, trying to emulate Clapton with all of my young and clumsy might.”

Sold!: Guitar Center paid $959,500 for it in 2004, setting a new record for world’s most expensive guitar. Proceeds went to Clapton’s rehab facility, the Crossroads Centre. – R. BIENSTOCK

Johnny Ramone - 1965 Mosrite Ventures II

The Mosrite Ventures guitar was originally designed for (who else?) instrumental surf-rock band the Ventures, but it came to greater fame when Johnny Ramone picked up a Ventures II model a decade later. In Ramone’s hands, the streamlined, entry-level axe – lightweight basswood “slab” body, thin, easy-playing neck, high-output pickups – became a weapon. He employed a blue Ventures II in the earliest days of the Ramones, but after that guitar was stolen, he picked up the 1965 white example that became as fundamental to his being as his black leather jacket and ripped blue jeans. How do we know? When the Ventures II was later auctioned, it was with the inscription “Johnny Ramone, My Main Guitar, 1977-1996” scrawled in pen on the back on the body.

Talk of the Town: “The first concert I ever bought myself a ticket to was the Ramones at City Gardens in Trenton, NJ,” Scott Metzger tells Billboard . “I still remember Johnny Ramone marching across the stage, forcefully picking up his Mosrite Ventures model guitar, strapping it on, and launching into ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’ like it was last week. There was so much power and attitude in the way that guitar looked on him, the way he attacked it, and the way it sounded playing those songs… any other guitar wouldn’t work. It HAD to be that Mosrite for Johnny… hanging down practically at his knees of course!”

Retirement Party: Ramone reportedly played the white Ventures II at every Ramones show from November 1977 through August 1996, when the band gave their final performance.

As Heard On: The guitar appeared on all Ramones studio albums from this period, and Ramone can also be seen playing it in the 1979 cult classic film, Rock ‘n’ Roll High School .

Sold!: In 2022, musician and producer Daniel Rey, then the owner of the Ventures II, sold the guitar through RR Auction, where an anonymous bidder purchased it for $937,500. – R. BIENSTOCK

Bo Diddley - Gretsch Jupiter Thunderbird

When early rock n’ roll pioneer Bo Diddley performed with Norma-Jean Wofford, known as The Duchess, during the ’60s, they wore matching 1959-era Gretsch Jupiter Thunderbirds. Diddley favored Gretsches, from the Duo Jet and Jet Firebird he used for his ’50s hits to the rectangular guitar he commissioned for himself and The Duchess to this Thunderbird with the Filter’Tron humbucking pickups. Diddley gave the model to ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, who lost track of it until a recording session when “the engineering crew and I snaked through the guitar vault searching for that ‘certain-something’ guitar and there it was,” according to Robert Shaw’s Hand Made, Hand Played: The Art & Craft of Contemporary Guitars.

Updated: Gretsch sells the Jupiter Thunderbird today as the Billy-Bo, a tribute to both Gibbons and Diddley.

Talk of the Town: Jack White built his own tribute model, the Gretsch G6199 Bill-Bo Jupiter Thunderbird, and told Guitar Player : “This guitar was inspired by seeing Billy Gibbons play one of Bo Diddley’s original Gretsch Jupiter Thunderbird guitars, which Bo had given to Billy. When I was working on the theme song for the James Bond movie [ Quantum of Solace ] with Alicia Keys, my idea was that we’d play live at some point, and I’d outfit Alicia and myself and the entire band with these guitars, sort of like how Bo and his guitarist The Duchess did back in the day.” – S. KNOPPER

Keith Richards - 1954 Fender Telecaster “Micawber”

According to legend, Eric Clapton gave Keith Richards this ‘54 butterscotch blackguard Tele, which would become his most prized guitar, as a gift for his 27th birthday. This could be true. Clapton liked to give people guitars, and there are pictures of Richards in his villa on the French Riviera a few months later, circa the Exile on Main St. sessions, holding the guitar and looking impossibly louche. Another fact lost to myth: whether the Tele is a ‘53 (as Richards once told Guitar World ) or a ‘54 (as described elsewhere). “If I had to have just one, I would take the Telecaster,” Richards told an interviewer, “Because we’re kind of married.”

Strange But True: Richards, a Charles Dickens fan, named the guitar Micawber, after a David Copperfield character who is optimistic without reason.

Rarity Factor: Micawber has been heavily modified. During the Stones’ 1972 Exile tour, Micawber’s neck pickup was replaced with a ‘50s era Gibson PAF humbucker, placed backwards. It’s a five-string (Richards removes the low E string and uses it in open G tuning) and a pedal-steel pickup was added to the guitar’s bridge. – A. STEWART

John Lennon - 1965 Epiphone Casino

At one point, all the guitarists in the Beatles had Casinos: Paul McCartney acquired his first, and John Lennon and George Harrison got theirs during the Revolver recording sessions in 1966. The Casino is a versatile but not particularly fancy guitar, a thinline, true hollow body that is a solid songwriter’s guitar; its semi-acoustic nature means it’s loud enough to play without plugging in an amp. Lennon would play the Casino throughout the rest of the Beatles’ run, and into his solo career. It remains part of his estate.

Stage Debut: It’s believed Lennon’s Casino made its first public appearance at Wembley’s Empire Pool on May 1, 1966, during an NME Annual Poll Winners All-Star concert. It was not televised.

As Seen On: Lennon played it during the Beatles’ last public performance on Jan. 30, 1969, on a London rooftop, as shown in the 1970 documentary Let It Be and the 2021 documentary Get Back.

Rarity Factor: The Casino used to have a sunburst painted on its body, but Lennon sanded off the finish at the suggestion of folk singer Donovan. It was believed that stripping down to the natural wood would increase the Casino’s resonance. According to Harrison, it worked. – A. STEWART

George Harrison - 1963 Rickenbacker 360-12

When it was announced that the Beatles were coming to America in February 1964, Rickenbacker president and owner Francis Hall was already aware that the Fab Four were playing his company’s guitars. Hall wrote to Beatles manager Brian Epstein and secured a meeting with the group in New York at the Savoy Hilton hotel after their arrival in the States. One of the guitars that Hall brought to the encounter was a Fireglo-finished example of the company’s brand new 360-12 12-string. George Harrison was too ill to attend the event, but John Lennon, after playing the guitar, convinced Hall to bring it to the guitarist’s hotel room across town. Harrison was immediately smitten with the instrument, and the jingle-jangly sound of the 12-string Rickenbacker would become not just synonymous with the Beatles, but ’60s rock in general.

Birthday: Harrison’s 360-12 carries the serial number of CM107, dating its manufacture to December 1963.

Go Low: Unlike other 12-strings, Rickenbacker put the lower octave string above the high ones for the E, A, D and G string pairs.

Two for One: The 360 features a traditional mono output jack, but also boasts a stereo and a (rarely used) “Ric-O-Sound” output on the same mounting plate. – T. BEAUJOUR

Django Reinhardt - Selmer Maccaferri 503

Mario Maccaferri was an Italian-born luthier who worked in the Paris factory of Selmer, then a European saxophone company, and his early, flat-topped models had unusual quirks like D-shaped sound holes. It wasn’t until Maccaferri left Selmer that Django Reinhardt, the French jazz-guitar pioneer, picked up his instrument with the serial number 503. That was in 1940, and Reinhardt played the Selmer until his death in 1953, ensuring the instrument would forever be associated with the style of improvisational music known as gypsy jazz. “Mon frere, all the Americans will wish they could play on this guitar!” Reinhardt once said, according to Dave Hunter’s Star Guitars: 101 Guitars That Rocked the World . “Don’t talk to me anymore about their tinpot guitars. Listen to this, it speaks like a cathedral.”

Talk of the Town: “Django can play one note and make it sound like a whole orchestra,” Jeff Beck said, according to Stanley Ayeroff’s Music of Django Reinhardt. And Willie Nelson’s famous “Trigger,” a Martin acoustic that famously survived a fire at his Nashville home, was directly inspired by Reinhardt’s Selmer. “I knew that was the sound I was trying to get, that Django sound,” Nelson told Texas Monthly .

Specs: By 1936, Reinhardt’s revised Selmer contained a “small oval soundhole and a longer neck with 14 frets to the body, offering him an even greater array of notes,” according to Michael Dregni’s Django: The Life and Music of a Gypsy Legend . Reinhardt had a deal with Selmer that he received an endless supply of guitars as a quid pro quo for an endorsement, and he once was said to have visited a company shop, trying out every instrument, taking the best ones for himself. – S. KNOPPER

Jimmy Page - ca.1959-1960 Les Paul Standard “Number One”

Page once described his “Number One” Les Paul Standard as “my mistress and my wife – and I don’t have to worry about paying any alimony.” Makes sense, as the two have never separated. Page purchased the guitar from Joe Walsh during a 1969 Led Zeppelin U.S. tour; a few months later, the band went into the studio to make Led Zeppelin II . In a 2023 Instagram post , Page recalled, “I played the Les Paul on ‘Whole Lotta Love’ and ‘What Is and What Should Never Be’ and that decided it for me: it was definitely going to be the Les Paul from then on.” Indeed it was. It became his go-to throughout his entire career with Zeppelin and beyond, and he still owns and plays it today.

Talk of the Town: “I’m six years old, watching The Song Remains The Same with my dad,” Duane Betts tells Billboard . “What could be cooler? Jimmy Page and his Les Paul. MSG. 1973.”

Specs: Page relied heavily on a Fender Telecaster with single-coil pickups for Zeppelin’s first album and tours, but as the band’s shows got bigger and louder, he regarded the Les Paul’s humbuckers as better suited to handle the increase in volume.

Strange But True: Despite being one of the most famous Les Pauls in history, the year of production remains unknown. Before Page obtained the guitar, the neck had been shaved down and the serial number rendered unreadable; experts have dated it to 1959 or 1960. – R. BIENSTOCK

Neil Young - 1953 Gibson Les Paul “Old Black” 

Beginning life as a gold top 1953 Gibson Les Paul, “Old Black” came to Neil Young by way of a trade (Young gave up a ’58 Gretsch 6120) with Jim Messina, his bandmate in Buffalo Springfield. By then, the gold finish had already been painted over. Young, an endless tinkerer and sonic obsessive, along with his guitar tech Larry Cragg, enacted additional mods over the ensuing years: adding a metal pickguard, installing a “very microphonic” Firebird bridge pickup and a toggle switch that sends its signal directly to an amp. On record, “Old Black” is the source of the gritty, gnarled tones that fuel many Crazy Horse classics; onstage more than 50 years later, it’s the instrument that Young still turns to when unleashing ear-blistering riffs and solos, not to mention waves of trance-like, nausea-inducing feedback.

As Heard On: “Cinnamon Girl,” “Down by the River,” “Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)” and many others.

Strange But True: Recalling one of the many modifications, Young told Guitar World in 2009 that the bridge pickup “had a really bad buzz, and I sent the guitar to a shop to be fixed. When I went to get it, it was gone. And by that I mean the store was gone. The whole place just wasn’t there anymore.” – R. BIENSTOCK

Jimmy Page - 1969 Gibson EDS-1275 Doubleneck

By now, it’s legend: Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page recorded “Stairway to Heaven” on both acoustic and electric guitars. To play “Stairway” live without having to change guitars, he adopted this Gibson, with 12 strings and six strings on its respective necks. For years, Page played it pretty much the way it came out of the box, though he eventually switched out the six-string humbuckers for Seymour Duncans without covers. “It’s an impressive instrument,” Page told Telerama in 2014. “It looks great. It’s a sexy woman with two necks.”

Strange But True: Gibson’s doublenecks had been around in one form or another since the ‘50s. While they’ve always been more impressive looking than actually popular, sales improved once they became easier to play and more comfortable in the early ‘60s. Naturally, “Stairway” elevated sales, too.

Sold!: Gibson has produced a Jimmy Page 1969 EDS-1275 Doubleneck Collector’s Edition, in collaboration with Page, and signed by the artist. Page’s used pick is included. – A. STEWART

Brian May - The Red Special

The Red Special is the rare guitar to have been constructed – literally, from raw materials – by the player who made it famous. Unable to afford an electric, the then-16-year-old May and his father, an electronics engineer, decided to build one themselves using materials in and around the family home in Middlesex, England. The mahogany neck came from an old fireplace, the body was fashioned from blockboard and topped with a mahogany veneer. Electronics, plastics and metals were hand-tooled or purchased as needed. The homemade result, dubbed the Red Special due to its reddish-brown color, is the instrument heard on every Queen album beginning with their 1973 self-titled debut, and has been May’s constant companion onstage ever since. Not bad for an instrument with a tremolo arm made from a bicycle saddlebag holder.

Strange But True: May’s dad helped him build the Red Special, but a rift developed between father and son after May opted to pursue music with Queen over completing a PhD in astrophysics; they didn’t speak for two years.

As Heard On: In 2002, May used the Red Special to perform on the roof of Buckingham Palace during Britain’s Golden Jubilee celebration for Elizabeth II. The song he played? “God Save the Queen.”

Signature Style: May co-founded Brian May Guitars in 2004 and issued the BMG Special, a tribute model based on his original Red Special. Today, the brand offers a full line of guitars, amps, pedals, accessories and other products. – R. BIENSTOCK

Albert King - “Lucy” Erlewine V

One of the blues’ true giants, Albert King was associated with V-shaped instruments since the beginning of his career in the 1950s, likely gravitating towards the design because its symmetrical body shape lent itself to being easily played upside down and backwards by the left-handed guitarist. In 1971, after seeing him perform in Ann Arbor, Mich., luthier Dan Erlewine approached King about building him a bespoke, truly left-handed model. King accepted, and when he visited Erlewine’s workshop the next day, requested that his name be inlaid in the fretboard. The guitar’s name, Lucy, was put on the headstock of the now-legendary instrument.

Good Wood: “Lucy” was crafted out of a 150-year-old piece of walnut.

Second Coming: The Erlewine-constructed Lucy was actually King’s second guitar given that name. The first, a 1959 Gibson Flying V that was the inspiration for King’s 1966 hit “I Love Lucy,” was stolen, although eventually recovered.

Super Soaker: In the ’80s, Lucy was submerged for 24 hours in the aftermath of a tornado, but successfully resuscitated. – T. BEAUJOUR

Jeff Beck - 1954 Les Paul aka “Oxblood”

Few rock n’ roll paintings are as iconic as the portrait of Jeff Beck on the cover of his 1975 solo album, Blow by Blow . The illustration not only immortalized Beck, but also the 1954 Les Paul in his hands. Acquired in November 1972 while Jeff was passing through Memphis on tour with Beck, Bogert & Appice, this guitar started as a 1954 Les Paul Gold Top. Its owner, Robert “Butch” Johnson, had it refinished in a deep oxblood burgundy and equipped it with two humbucking pickups. Dissatisfied with the color, Johnson traded it in at Strings & Things in Memphis, where it caught the eye of Beck’s acquaintance, Buddy Davis. When Davis shared his find with Beck, it was love at first sight.

Strange But True: The “Oxblood” guitar was Beck’s third Les Paul. The first was a 1958 model ruined by a repairman, and the second was a 1960 model bought from Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen.

Rarity Factor: Approximately 1,500 Les Pauls were produced in 1954. Now, they are worth anywhere from $35,000 to $45,000.

As Heard On: Beck can be seen demonstrating this guitar in the 1974 BBC special Five Faces of the Guitar . – B. TOLINSKI

Peter Green / Gary Moore / Kirk Hammett - 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard “Greeny”

The 1959 Gibson Les Paul, affectionately known as Greeny, has connections to not one, not two, but three legendary guitarists. It was originally owned by British musician Peter Green, who purchased it from a London shop in the mid ‘60s and used it extensively during his time with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers and the band he formed subsequently, Fleetwood Mac. Early in the following decade, Green sold the guitar to Gary Moore, who played the Les Paul throughout his solo career and in his time with Thin Lizzy before unloading it in 2006 due to financial troubles. After making its way through the hands of several dealers and collectors (it is a ’59 ‘burst, after all) Greeny was ultimately purchased by Metallica’s Kirk Hammett, who has played it onstage and in the studio with Metallica. In a full circle moment, Hammett played “Greeny” at 2020’s Peter Green tribute concert in London.

As Heard On: The list is long and deep: Fleetwood Mac’s “Black Magic Woman,” “Oh Well” and “Albatross”; Thin Lizzy’s Black Rose: A Rock Legend ; Gary Moore’s “Parisienne Walkways”; and Metallica’s Hardwired… To Self-Destruct, among many others.

Specs: During Green’s ownership the guitar’s neck pickup was removed and then reinstalled backward. This results in a distinct “nasal” tone when both pickups are in use together.

Specs, Part 2: In 2022, Gibson and Hammett unveiled a limited-edition Custom Shop “Greeny” Les Paul replica and have since introduced several additional Greeny models. – R. BIENSTOCK

Stevie Ray Vaughan - ca. 1963 Fender Stratocaster aka “Number One”

Stevie Ray Vaughan acquired his legendary road-worn “Number One” Fender Stratocaster in 1974 at Ray Henning’s Heart of Texas Music in Austin. Sometimes referred to as “First Wife,” or just “The Wife,” this guitar features a 1963 body fitted with pickups from a ’59 Strat, and an unusually thick D-profile 1962 neck. The original white pickguard was replaced with a black one, and a left-handed vibrato system, inspired by Jimi Hendrix and Otis Rush, was installed. But perhaps the guitar’s most distinctive features are its least expensive: Vaughan picked up some stickers at a truck stop and placed a holographic “custom” sticker across the bottom of the bridge to cover a hole, and applied his initials, SRV, to the scratch plate.

Strange But True: Stevie’s ’63 Strat was originally owned by Texas singer-songwriter Christopher Cross, composer of mellow hits such as “Sailing” and “Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do).”

Specs: Because of frequent re-fretting, the original neck became unplayable in the late 1980s and was swapped with the neck of another guitar in Vaughan’s collection.

Retirement Party: A month before Vaughan’s death in 1990 at age 35, a piece of stage rigging fell on “Number One” and snapped the neck at the headstock. – B. TOLINSKI

Sister Rosetta Tharpe - ca. 1961 White Les Paul

The pioneering gospel singer and underrated guitar hero used this white Les Paul model that Gibson redesigned in 1961, rebranding it as an “SG,” for solid guitar, with a thin body, flat top and other features. Although the Arkansas-born singer played a National Triolian, then a Gibson L-5, in her early recordings and club dates in the ’30s and ’40s, she settled on this custom electric in the early ’60s. Tharpe played the SG — which biographer Gayle F. Wald said “set [Tharpe] back $750” in her book Shout, Sister, Shout! — when she hosted TV Gospel Time in the early ’60s, pulling off a pre-duckwalk move on “Down by the Riverside” that is said to have inspired Chuck Berry.

Talk of the Town : “I don’t think Chuck Berry or Elvis or even Hendrix would play like they did without her influence,” Oliver Wood tells Billboard . “She’s been called the Godmother of Rock n’ Roll – title she got long after her death (when she was still barely known). Anyone who’s seen YouTube footage of her playing ‘Up Above My Head’ can hear and see that she was a rock n’ roll virtuoso before any of the rockers on this list.”

Specs: Tharpe’s Gibson model had “three humbuckers and all the trimmings: a five-piece split diamond headstock inlay, pearl block markers on an ebony fingerboard and gold-plated hardware including a Tune-O-Matic bridge,” according to Rick Batey’s The American Blues Guitar: An Illustrated History (2003). She wore a custom Gucci strap displaying “SISTER” in red studs.

On Display: The guitar has been part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s “Play It Loud: Instruments of Rock & Roll” exhibit since 2019. – S. KNOPPER

Robert Johnson - Gibson L-1

Like everything about the ghostly bluesman who created “Sweet Home Chicago,” “Cross Road Blues” and dozens of other classics and was said to have sold his soul to the devil at the crossroads in the Mississippi Delta, Robert Johnson’s guitar is shrouded in mystery. The only documentation that Johnson played a Gibson L-1, a no-frills flat-top acoustic introduced in 1926 to compete with C.F. Martin, comes from the two verified photos of him. In one, taken at a Hooks Brothers Photography studio in Memphis around 1935, Johnson wears a fedora and pin-striped suit and sits on a stool, cradling the L-1.

As Heard On: Nobody knows whether Johnson actually played the L-1 on his only recordings, the 29 songs and 12 alternate takes that make up the 1990 box set Robert Johnson: The Complete Recordings . The sessions were in 1936 and 1937 in San Antonio and Dallas, but little else is known about them.

Strange But True: It’s unknown how Johnson learned to play, but his stepsister, Annye C. Anderson, wrote in her book Brother Robert: Growing Up With Robert Johnson : “Sister Carrie ordered his first guitar from Sears & Roebuck and paid for it. … He didn’t have any money, so he had to get it from somebody. In front of our house, he would sit there and play his guitar.” – S. KNOPPER

David Gilmour - 1969 Fender Stratocaster “The Black Strat”

During a U.S. tour with Pink Floyd in early 1970, David Gilmour’s black Fender Stratocaster was stolen in New Orleans. A few months later, he stopped by Manny’s Music in New York City and purchased another one. In Gilmour’s hands, this instrument – a sunburst-finished model that had been sprayed black – became the iconic Black Strat (even more so after Gilmour replaced the white pickguard with a custom all-black one). Heavily modified over the years (multiple necks, for one), it was a mainstay in Pink Floyd’s sound, and central to the recording of their stunning run of ‘70s albums – The Dark Side of the Moon , Wish You Were Here , Animals and The Wall . The screaming licks in “Money”? The Black Strat. The lone four-note arpeggio that introduces “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”? The Black Strat. The soaring solos in “Comfortably Numb?” The Black Strat, again. It was, Gilmour told Christie’s in 2019, “The one I used pretty much on everything.”

Stage Debut: June 28, 1970, the Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music, Somerset, England, on a bill with Led Zeppelin and others.

Retirement Party: London’s Royal Albert Hall, September 2016, for the final five shows of Gilmour’s Rattle That Lock tour.

Sold!: In 2019 it sold at a charity auction through Christie’s. The Black Strat was purchased by Indianapolis Colts owner and guitar collector Jim Irsay for $3,975,000, a record at the time. – R. BIENSTOCK

Angus Young - Gibson SG

It’s appropriate that the guy wearing devil horns on AC/DC’s 1979 classic Highway to Hell favors a guitar with barbed cutouts that complement the look. In interviews, Young has said that he likes the SG because it’s light — all the better to duckwalk onstage like his hero Chuck Berry — and has a thin neck. He has also said , “I tried Fenders, but they were too heavy, and they just didn’t have the balls.”

He fell in love with the SG — his first was a ca. 1967 SG Standard — in the earliest days of AC/DC, and you can hear the guitar on every album and every show since the Aussie rockers’ debut, High Voltage (although not always the original early ‘70s model he purchased). He stopped using it for concerts around 1978 and limited it mostly to studio use. He has said that he has “hundreds” of SGs in his collection.

Six-String Stories: One reason Young is reluctant to use the original SG onstage: “In the early days that guitar would get broken in two, or I’d bang the headstock off,” he explained to Guitar World in 2003 . “Nowadays, I do my best to look after it.”

Strange But True: Young’s first instrument was a banjo that he converted into a guitar by adding a sixth string. — F. DIGIACOMO

Chuck Berry - 1955 Gibson ES-350T

Berry’s blonde, voluptuously pear-shaped, thinline Gibson — that’s what the “T” stands for — has defined what rock n’ roll looks and sounds from the start. He played the model (designed for big-band jazz guitarists) on his first hit “Maybelline,” and kept on playing it on “Johnny B. Goode,” “Roll Over Beethoven” and everything else until he switched to the ES-330 and the ES-355 by the early ’60s. When Berry suggested to his friend, Joe Edwards, that he might donate a guitar for display in his Blueberry Hill restaurant, Edwards recalled to the Los Angeles Times in 1987, “I assumed it would just be some old guitar — the kind every guitar player has laying around. But when he brought out the case, I knew right away that it was the guitar. … A lot of rock n’ roll began in that guitar.”

On Display: The original ES-350T has been shown at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art — as part of its “Play It Loud: Instruments of Rock & Roll” exhibit in 2019 — and outside hamburger joint Blueberry Hill in Berry’s hometown of St. Louis, where he performed regularly in the Duck Room for years.

Talk of the Town: “The big band era is my era,” Berry told the Los Angeles Times in 1987. “People say, where did you get your style from. I did the big band era on guitar. That’s the best way I could explain it. – S. KNOPPER

B.B. King - "Lucille"

The story of B.B. King’s legendary guitar begins in Twist, Ark., in 1949. It seems the Mississippi bluesman was playing a winter dance when two fans knocked over a kerosene stove during a fight and set the hall on fire. King made it to safety, but when he figured out he’d left his $30 guitar inside, he returned to rescue it. Later, he learned the fight had been over a woman named Lucille — which became the name of this guitar, and every one of the trademark Gibsons he played thereafter. “When I sing, I play in my mind; the minute I stop singing orally, I start to sing by playing Lucille,” King said of his wailing yet somehow perfectly crisp and precise style, the response to his vocal call.

Talk of the Town: In an unpublished 2005 interview with the late Bobby “Blue” Bland, he explained: “Him and Lucille have a different way of doing things. The flavor he has when he plays Lucille — they’re together, period, and he knows what he wants to hear.”

Specs: King loved Gibsons, particularly semi-hollow “ES,” or “electric Spanish,” models — such as the ES-335 he used on his 1965 classic Live at the Regal . By 2005, King was on his 16th version of Lucille — and rode in a tour bus with Lucille’s picture painted on the side. The name of the bus? Lucille, of course. – S. KNOPPER

Eddie Van Halen - Homemade “Frankenstein”

Few, if any, guitars in rock n’ roll have inspired more adulation and imitation than Eddie Van Halen’s red, white and black “Frankenstein.” With it, Eddie revolutionized not only how people played the guitar but also the very guitars they played. Soon after Van Halen’s emergence, Frankenstein-inspired “Super Strats,” featuring similarly brash color schemes, hot-rodded electronics and high-impact locking tremolo systems, became de rigueur for guitarists in hard rock circles and beyond. Van Halen, who built Frankenstein himself, modified the guitar many times before it assumed its current guise. It appears with a white body in photos from before the band’s signing to Warner Bros.; with black stripes on the cover of their 1978 self-titled debut; and then eventually in its most recognizable, red, white and black guise on Van Halen’s 1979 tour supporting their sophomore album, Van Halen II.

Pickup Line: “Frankenstein” featured many different pickups in its bridge position, but Van Halen eventually settled on a “Patent Number” humbucker removed from his 1964 Gibson ES-335.

Double Whammy: Although it began its life with a traditional Fender Stratocaster bridge, Frankenstein would eventually be fitted with a double-locking Floyd Rose tremolo that allowed Van Halen to perform his signature “dive bombs” without going out of tune.

Coin Operated: At some point, Van Halen screwed a 1971 quarter onto the face of the guitar. – T. BEAUJOUR

Willie Nelson - 1969 Martin N-20 “Trigger”

The most noticeable feature on Trigger, Willie Nelson’s Martin N-20 nylon-string acoustic, is the thing that’s not there: the gaping hole above the bridge where some of the guitar’s top used to reside. Given that Nelson has been playing Trigger consistently since 1969, on countless recordings and at thousands of shows, it’s no surprise that it has endured some wear. The hole is a result of Nelson’s forceful picking style, with his plectrum constantly scuffing the guitar’s body (nylon-string, or classical, guitars are traditionally played fingerstyle, and as such the N-20 didn’t come with a pickguard). Elsewhere, Trigger has been scratched, scraped, broken apart, glued back together, braced, lacquered, repaired, modified, even autographed by dozens of other artists. And then there’s the tone: In addition to playing with a pick, Nelson, also against convention, amplifies the nylon-string instrument. Combined with his distinctive playing style, the result is a sound that — like Nelson’s voice — has been instantly recognizable to music fans worldwide for more than a half century.

Specs: Trigger boasts a Sitka spruce top (what’s left of it), Brazilian rosewood back and sides, a mahogany neck and ebony fretboard and bridge.

Origin Story: At a 1969 gig Nelson’s main guitar, a Baldwin, was damaged after being stepped on by a drunk patron. The repairman, Shot Jackson, deemed it unsalvageable and suggested he replace it with a new Martin D-20 he had on hand. Nelson had Jackson transfer the Baldwin’s pickup to his new guitar, paying $750 for the instrument.

Name Game: Nelson didn’t actually christen the guitar until after he had been playing it for decades. When he did, he took inspiration from one of his childhood idols. “Roy Rogers had a horse named Trigger,” he told Texas Monthly in 2012. “I figured, this is my horse!” – R. BIENSTOCK

Jimi Hendrix - ca. 1965 Fender Stratocaster “Monterey”

“This is for everybody,” Jimi Hendrix said at the end of his cover of the Troggs’ “Wild Thing” before falling to his knees on stage at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, writhing on his Strat, dousing it with lighter fluid, setting it on fire and spectacularly smashing it, one-upping The Who’s Pete Townshend in destructive, sensual fashion. The moment is frozen in rock history, surviving for generations in film, dorm-room posters and a limited-edition Fender replica. Before the gig, Hendrix partially repainted the fiesta-red model white and added flower images.

Rarity Factor: Jimi Hendrix had yet to become a GOAT legend when he played Monterey Pop, so little is known about this (destroyed) Strat, other than he favored Strats made after 1965. Some have theorized that this was because their weaker single-coil pickups, when fed into Marshall stacks, made for a heavier sound.

Talk of the Town: After Townshend witnessed Hendrix’ performance, Mama Cass turned to him in the audience and asked: “Pete, aren’t you supposed to be the guy that smashes the guitars?” Townshend responded, “Everything that I do, everything that I’ve done, everything that I am, everything that I could ever come up with, is his now.”

Talk of the Town, Part 2: “Everybody was talking about how Jimi Hendrix burned his Strat and broke it onstage and How could he? ” Carlos Santana wrote in his 2014 autobiography, The Universal Tone . – S. KNOPPER

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